Psychological Scars and Physical Consequences: Linking PTSD to Cardiovascular Health

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is defined as a mental health condition that occurs after experiencing a traumatic event. Patients diagnosed with PTSD have a 30-45% increase in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk or cardiac-specific mortality even after adjusting for depression, demographic, clinical (e.g., age, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and tobacco use), and psychosocial factors. With this, the lifetime prevalence of PTSD has a notable sex disparity: women have a prevalence of approximately 10%, compared to 4% in men. Mechanisms explaining the increased risk of CVD in PTSD patients is unclear, leaving this patient population vulnerable as well as placing a substantial economic burden on the United States healthcare system. In this review, we will discuss the effect of PTSD on cardiovascular physiology, with an emphasis on sex differences, mechanisms of inflammation, and impaired ANS responses. In addition, we will summarize current and experimental therapeutics for PTSD that may help mitigate the risk of CVD.