Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Gives A Higher Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Gives A Higher Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease.
Veterans torment from post-traumatic make a point of disorder, or PTSD, appear to be at higher chance for heart disease. For the first time, researchers have linked PTSD with severe atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), as sober by levels of calcium deposits in the arteries. The condition "is emerging as a significant jeopardy factor," said Dr Ramin Ebrahimi, co-principal investigator of a scrutiny on the issue presented Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Chicago. The authors are hoping that these and other, alike findings will prompt doctors, particularly primary regard physicians, to more carefully screen patients for PTSD and, if needed, follow up aggressively with screening and treatment.

Post-traumatic focus on disorder - triggered by experiencing an event that causes intense fear, helplessness or angst - can include flashbacks, emotional numbing, overwhelming guilt and shame, being unquestionably startled, and difficulty maintaining close relationships. "When you go to a doctor, they ask questions about diabetes, peak blood pressure and cholesterol," said Ebrahimi, who is a research scientist at the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Administration Center. "The target would be for PTSD to become part of routine screening for love disease risk factors".

Although PTSD is commonly associated with war veterans, it's now also thoroughly linked to people who have survived traumatic events, such as rape, a severe accident or an earthquake, pour or other natural disaster. The authors reviewed electronic medical records of 286,194 veterans, most of them manful with an average age 63, who had been seen at Veterans Administration medical centers in southern California and Nevada. Some of the veterans had keep on been on active duty as far back as the Korean War.

Researchers also had access to coronary artery calcium CT research images for 637 of the patients, which showed that those with PTSD had more calcium built up in their arteries - a danger factor for heart disease - and more cases of atherosclerosis. About three-quarters of those diagnosed with PTSD had some calcium build-up, versus 59 percent of the veterans without the disorder. As a group, the veterans with PTSD had more taxing contagion of their arteries, with an average coronary artery calcification sitting duck of 448, compared to a score of 332 in the veterans without PTSD - a significantly higher reading.