Post Traumatic Stress Increases Heart Disease Risk in Older Vets

Military Veterans with higher levels of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are at greater risk of heart disease in later years. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston looked at the health of 1,946 male veterans of World War II and Korea. Veterans completed questionnaires that measured their PTSD symptoms in 1986 or in 1990. It was found that for each increase in symptom level, the men had an increased risk both for non-fatal heart attack and fatal coronary heart disease.

Although men with PTSD tend to smoke and use alcohol more, the study controlled for these, and also took account of family histories of heart problems. The results, which relied on self-reported measures of stress, apply mainly to older white males who served in the military. However, the carefully controlled study also points to a direct link between exposure to trauma and cardiac disease.

Research, published in the 2006 edition of Archives of General Psychiatry, pointed to high levels of PTSD in American troops returning from Iraq. Nearly 22,000 of the 222,620 troops were found to be suffering from PTSD.

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