Posttraumatic stress disorder: somatic comorbidity and effort tolerance

To explore psychological and somatic distress following trauma, the authors compared 50 combat veterans with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with 48 age-matched combat veterans without PTSD. Both groups were evaluated on symptom reports, physical examination findings, and laboratory tests. Subjects with PTSD reported significantly more symptoms, but they did not differ from controls on their physical examination and laboratory test findings. Adverse health practices (smoking, alcohol use, and deregulation of food intake) were significantly more frequent in the PTSD group. Low effort tolerance, as has been reported in panic disorder patients, was observed in the PTSD group.