Regular Research ArticlesSleep-Disordered Breathing in Vietnam Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Section snippets
Subjects
Community-dwelling veterans 55 years or older with PTSD of any race or ethnicity were recruited through media advertisement, local veteran agencies, clinician referral from the outpatient clinics of the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, geriatric clinics, and the National Center for PTSD branch at the Menlo Park Division of VA Palo Alto Health Care System. From these sources, 157 male subjects residing primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area received an initial screening, 123 were found eligible
RESULTS
Our subjects were primarily from the San Francisco Bay Area and of the expected demographic make-up of Vietnam-era veterans living in this region (Table 1). APOE η4 carrier status was at the expected prevalence (26% of our sample). The incidence of SDB was 69% using a criterion of AHI ≥10. As expected, body mass index (BMI) was significantly associated with AHI (Spearman r = 0.41, N = 97, p <0.0001). APOE η4 carrier status was not associated with AHI ≥10: mean (SD) AHI scores in APOE η4
DISCUSSION
Recently, a team of researchers44 found that PTSD was associated with a nearly twofold risk of developing dementia among older veterans such as veterans with PTSD had a 7-year cumulative incident dementia rate of 14.4%, whereas those without PTSD had a rate of 8.1%. Using age as the time scale and adjusting for demographics, medical, and psychiatric comorbidities, patients with PTSD were nearly twice as likely to develop incident dementia (hazards ratio: 1.93, 95% confidence interval:
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Sleep disturbances in traumatic exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder
2023, Encyclopedia of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms: Volume 1-6, Second EditionPrevalence of obstructive sleep apnea in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder and its impact on adherence to continuous positive airway pressure therapy: a meta-analysis
2017, Sleep MedicineCitation Excerpt :The majority of the studies [11,12,15,23–26] were conducted in the U.S. (N = 7; 70%) and most of the participants [11,12,14,15,23,25–28] were veterans (N = 9; 90%). As for the OSA diagnosis, three studies [11,15,26] of 10 (30%) used AHI ≥5 across PSG, six studies [12,14,24,25,27,28] of 10 (60%) used AHI ≥10, and one study [23] of 10 did not report the AHI criteria. It was possible to pool data from 10 unique studies that established the estimated weighted mean prevalence of OSA for PTSD of 55.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 38.5–70.7%; Q = 94.70, I2 = 90.50%, Z = 0.600; N = 10; n = 632) (Fig. 2).
Ubiquity of undiagnosed sleep disordered breathing in community-dwelling older male veterans
2016, American Journal of Geriatric PsychiatryTreatment-refractory posttraumatic stress disorder (TRPTSD): a review and framework for the future
2016, Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological PsychiatryCitation Excerpt :In a large-scale community survey 70% of participants meeting diagnostic criteria for PTSD were found to have some type of sleep disturbance (Ohayon and Shapiro, 2000). A stark example to the high prevalence of sleep disorders is a recent finding of mild sleep apnea (Apnea Hypopnea Index > 10) in 69% of veteran with PTSD (Yesavage et al., 2012). Although data suggests a strong association between trauma exposure and nightmares as well as between PTSD and nightmares (Mellman et al., 2001), insomnia is actually more prevalent than nightmares among people with PTSD and is the most commonly endorsed PTSD symptom (Green, 1993).
Posttraumatic stress disorder and sleep-disordered breathing: A review of comorbidity research
2015, Sleep Medicine ReviewsCitation Excerpt :In our study of 44 crime victims with PTSD or clinically relevant posttraumatic stress symptoms, 50% were diagnosed with OSA and 41% with UARS [41]; however, this sample is biased as patients were seeking treatment for sleep problems. Recently, in a sample of 105 Vietnam-era veterans with PTSD, 69% had an AHI >10 [59], despite the researchers using only the thermistor technology. In another recent work with a sample of 69 combat veterans returning from war zones, rates of OSA averaged roughly 75% among three groups comprised of either PTSD patients, traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients or a group of “other diagnostic conditions.”
The authors acknowledge the efforts of Emily Luther, Kader Ucar, and Claire Stewart for their assistance with study coordination and data collection.
This research was supported by the Sierra-Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MI- RECC) and the Medical Research Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. David's contribution was also supported by an Alzheimer disease Plan grant from the Conseil General des Alpes-Maritimes, Nice, France.