Tag Archives: PTSD

PTSD Increases Risk of Food Addiction in Women

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Susan Mason, PhD, MPH Assistant Professor Division of Epidemiology and Community Health Minneapolis, MN 55454MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Susan Mason, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health
Minneapolis, MN  55454

 

Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?

Dr. Mason: We examined 49,408 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II to see if those who had experienced PTSD symptoms at some point in their lives were more likely than those without PTSD symptoms to meet the criteria for food addiction, a measure of perceived dependence on food. We found that the 8% of women with the most lifetime PTSD symptoms were about 2.7 times as likely to meet the criteria for food addiction as women with no lifetime PTSD symptoms. This translates to an elevation in food addiction prevalence from about 6% among women with no PTSD symptoms to about 16% in women with the most PTSD symptoms.

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Military Combat Increases Risk of Subsequent Coronary Heart Disease

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Dr. Nancy Crum-Cianflone Deployment Health Research Department, Naval Health Research Center San Diego, CAMedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Nancy Crum-Cianflone MD
Deployment Health Research Department, Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA


MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?

Dr. Nancy Crum-Cianflone: There have been several studies examining the health outcomes of service members who recently deployed to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.  However, none of these studies to date had examined the potential role of military deployment experiences and PTSD on coronary heart disease (CHD) among young US service members.  We believed that this would be an important study to undertake since these data would not only be useful to the US military, but may also have implications regarding job-related stressors on the health of young adults in the general population.

After studying over 60,000 current and former US military personnel, we found that those who deployed and experienced combat were at a 60%-90% increased risk of subsequently developing CHD.  This finding was noted when we examined both self-reported CHD and medical record validated coronary heart disease.  These data suggest that experiences of intense stress may increase the risk for coronary heart disease over a relatively short period among young, previously healthy adults.

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PTSD and Plasma Marker of Inflammation CRP

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Dr. Dewleen Baker MD Veterans Affairs (VA) San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Dewleen Baker MD
Veterans Affairs (VA) San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California


MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?

Dr. Baker: The main finding of this study is that a marker of peripheral inflammation, plasma CRP may be prospectively associated with PTSD symptom emergence, suggesting that inflammation may predispose to PTSD.
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Traumatic Brain Injury Increases Risk of PTSD

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Dewleen G. Baker, MD Department of Psychiatry School of Medicine, University of California, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health San Diego, CaliforniaMedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dewleen G. Baker, MD
Department of Psychiatry
School of Medicine, University of California,
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System
Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health
San Diego, California

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?

Dr. Baker: Pre-deployment psychiatric symptoms, combat intensity, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) were significant predictors of post-deployment PTSD symptom severity.  However, the strongest predictor was deployment-related TBI; mild TBI increased symptom scores by 23%, and moderate to severe injuries increased scores by 71%.
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PTSD and Medication Non-Adherence

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Ian Kronish, MD, MPHMedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ian Kronish, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health
Division of General Medicine
Columbia University Medical Center

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?

Dr. Kronish: Among primary care patients with persistently uncontrolled blood pressure despite medication treatment, we found that medication non-adherence was more than twice as common in patients with PTSD (68%) as compared to patients without PTSD (26%). The association between PTSD and medication non-adherence remained present after adjustment for key covariates including regimen complexity and depression. Recent research shows that PTSD not only contributes to psychological distress, but is also associated with increased risk for incident and recurrent cardiovascular disease. The data from our study suggest that medication non-adherence may be an important mechanism by which PTSD increases risk for cardiovascular disease.
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