Study: PTSD Raises CVD Risk in Women Up To 60%

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with as much as a 60% increase in the risk of heart attack and stroke in women, according to recent research.

Previous research has suggested that PTSD—a disorder that occurs in women twice as much as in men—could be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and yet, little data has been collected on whether PTSD contributes to CVD risk in women.
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In order to further explore this issue, researchers examined exposure to trauma and PTSD in relation to CVD in 49,978 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study II over a 20-year period.

Trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms were evaluated using the Brief Trauma Questionnaire as well as a PTSD screen.

Overall, researchers found that CVD risk was 60% higher in women with 4 or more PTSD symptoms and 45% higher in women who reported traumatic events but had no PTSD symptoms, compared to women with no history of trauma exposure or PTSD.

Factors such as smoking, obesity, hypertension, and lack of exercise accounted for 14% of the CVD association in those with trauma but no PTSD symptoms and 47% of the association in those with trauma and 4 or more PTSD symptoms.

“If research continues to demonstrate associations between trauma exposure, PTSD, and CVD incidence (particularly evidence for causal links), then assessing and monitoring cardiovascular function in trauma-exposed individuals and those with PTSD may have a positive public health impact and help to detect pre-clinical markers of cardiovascular dysfunction,” they concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Sumner JA, Kubzansky LD, Elkind MSV, et al. Trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms predict onset of cardiovascular events in women. Circulation. June 2015 [epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.014492.