Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with a heightened risk of developing ischemic heart disease (IHD) among female veterans, according to new findings published in JAMA Cardiology.
Despite advances in prevention and treatment and corresponding decreases in IHD mortality during the past few decades, IHD remains an understudied, underdiagnosed and undertreated condition in women,” wrote lead author Ramin Ebrahimi, MD, a specialist from the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, and colleagues. “Accounting for psychosocial factors such as stress and mental disorders4 may improve our understanding of women’s IHD risk. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the quintessential stress-related mental disorder, characterized by persistent maladaptive reactions to severe psychological stress and trauma.
Ebrahimi et al. used Veterans Health Administration data from nearly 400,000 female veterans who were treated from 2000 to 2017. More than 132,000 of those patients had a prior PTSD diagnosis. Patients were excluded if information was only available for a single clinical encounter.
Overall, female veterans were found to be at a greater risk of incident IHD—defined as “new-onset coronary artery disease, angina or myocardial infarction”—if they had a confirmed PTSD diagnosis. Additional calculations revealed that younger female veterans were at an especially high risk; as they got older, that risk appeared to gradually go down.
“With the number of women veterans growing, it is critical to appreciate the health care needs of this relatively young and diverse patient population,” the authors wrote. “Our results may have important implications for earlier and more aggressive IHD risk assessment, monitoring, and management in vulnerable women veterans. Indeed, our findings support recent calls for cardiovascular risk screening in younger individuals and for the need to harness a broad range of clinicians who routinely treat younger women to maximize prevention efforts.”
Read the full JAMA Cardiology analysis here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.