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Various correlates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as high levels of sympathetic activation and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation, have been linked to arterial damage and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. While psychological disturbance is frequently found among patients with cardiac disease, whether psychological problems precede or occur as a result of having a potentially fatal disease is not clear. To our knowledge, no prospective studies to date have evaluated whether PTSD is associated with increased risk of CHD.

To test the hypothesis that high levels of PTSD symptoms may increase CHD risk, using 2 different measures of PTSD.

Prospective cohort study.

Community-dwelling men from the Greater Boston, Mass, area who served in the military.

Data are from the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study. Men who completed either the …