PTSD linked to higher post-surgery death rate
Author: Elizabeth Landau
Posttraumatic stress disorder also referred to as PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder that can happen after exposure to any event which results in psychological trauma. PTSD has also been recognized in the past as railway spine, stress syndrome, shell shock, battle fatigue, traumatic war neurosis, or post-traumatic stress syndrome. Symptoms of PTSD include re-experiencing original trauma(s), by means of flashbacks, nightmares, difficulty falling or staying asleep, and anger. Recent studies suggest Post-traumatic stress disorder may be a condition of the mind, but a new study suggests it may be associated with death after surgery. Study shows that veterans with PTSD were more likely to die1 year after surgery than those without the disease, no matter the years that passed since their service. According to the Mayo clinic, symptoms such as nightmares, anxiety, and social withdrawal along with others usually happens within three months of a traumatic event. This disorder has also been associated with alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. About 6.8 percent of adult Americans have had PTSD at some point in their lives, according to a 2005 survey cited by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Also, veterans of the Vietnam war was 30 percent in men and 27 percent in women have had PTSD. Researchers focused on male patients treated between 1998 and 2008 at the VA San Francisco Medical Center. These patients had their first elective noncardiac major surgery requiring hospital admission during that time. The authors relied on information that was already recorded and did not interview any patients. Of the 1,792 male veterans, 129 or 7.2% had a diagnosis of PTSD on the day of surgery, and the rest did not. One year after surgery, 8.5 percent of the patients with PTSD had died, compared with 6.8 percent of patients who did not have the psychiatric disorder,...