Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Older Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

This study explored (1) the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulting from past trauma among older patients with COPD and (2) whether PTSD and COPD severity would relate to psychiatric co-morbidity and health-related quality of life. Eighty-five older patients completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire, the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale and the Medical Outcomes Short Form 12. The results showed that 55, 39 and 6 % had no, partial and full-PTSD respectively. Partial least squares showed that PTSD was significantly correlated with COPD severity which in turn was significantly correlated with health-related quality of life and psychiatric co-morbidity. Mediational analysis showed that the emotional symptoms of COPD mediated between PTSD and the mental health functioning of health-related quality of life and between PTSD and depression. To conclude, PTSD from past trauma was related to the severity of COPD for older patients. In particular, it impacted on the elevated emotional arousal of COPD severity. In turn, COPD severity impacted on older patients' general psychological well-being and depression.