This study examined the influence of veterans' race and examiners' use of psychometric testing during a Department of Veterans Affairs posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) disability examination on diagnostic and service connection status outcomes. Participants were 764 veterans enrolled in a national longitudinal registry. Current and lifetime PTSD diagnostic status was determined with the Str...

BACKGROUND Victims exposed to serious traumatic experiences may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suffer this mental health problem for a long time. Different types of trauma displayed a chronicity rate of PTSD within the range of 6.3-68.9 %. As one of the most common and severe natural disasters, the natural progression of flood related PTSD has not been revealed. The aim of th...

BACKGROUND Chronic inflammation may be involved in combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and may help explain comorbid physical diseases. However, the extent to which combat exposure per se, depression, or early life trauma, all of which are associated with combat PTSD, may confound the relationship between PTSD and inflammation is unclear. METHODS We quantified interleukin (IL...

IMPORTANCE Animal data suggest that chronic stress is associated with a reduction in norepinephrine transporter (NET) availability in the locus coeruleus. However, it is unclear whether such models are relevant to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which has been linked to noradrenergic dysfunction in humans. OBJECTIVES To use positron emission tomography and the radioligand [11C]methylreb...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder of emotional and mental stress occurring as an outcome of injury or severe emotional shock. Several Neuroimaging studies in humans have shown the functions and relationship between the anatomical changes of brain and PTSD. The three major areas of the brain are affected by PTSD .These three areas are the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cor...

Long-term consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI) are closely associated with the development of severe psychiatric disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet preclinical studies on pathological changes after combined TBI with PTSD are lacking. In the present in vivo study, we assessed chronic neuroinflammation, neuronal cell loss, cell proliferation and neuronal differe...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent anxiety disorder that is often undetected among primary care patients. The Department of Veterans Affairs has implemented the Primary Care-PTSD Screen (PC-PTSD) to screen for PTSD; however, minimal research has examined its utility. This study was designed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the PC-PTSD among veterans who had served since 9/1...

OBJECTIVE This study examined rates, predictors, and course of probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among seriously injured soldiers during and following hospitalization. METHOD The patients were 613 U.S. soldiers hospitalized following serious combat injury. Standardized screening instruments were administered 1, 4, and 7 months following injury; 243 soldiers complete...

Background: Although depression symptoms are often experienced by individuals who develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following trauma exposure, little is know about the biological correlates associated with PTSD and depression co-morbidity vs. those associated with PTSD symptoms alone. Methods: Here we examined salivary cortisol responses to trauma activation in a sample of 60 survivo...

AIM This paper describes a 1-year follow-up of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology and depression in an elderly minority population who experienced Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan. METHODS The PTSD Symptom Scale--Interview and the 10-item short form Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale were used to examine PTSD symptomatology and depression in 120 victims at 3-6 mont...