A study that employed data from Veterans Health Administration (VHA) electronic medical records has suggested that there appears to be a significant association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among female veterans and an elevated risk for incident ischemic heart disease (IHD).

The heightened risk for IHD was found to be the highest among women below 40 with PTSD, and among racial and ethnic minorities.

Among the 9940 women who had incident IHD during follow-up, 5559 did not have PTSD while 4381 had PTSD. PTSD was shown to be significantly tied to an increased risk for IHD. Over a median follow-up of 4.9 years, female veterans with PTSD appeared to have a 44% higher rate of developing incident IHD compared to those without PTSD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.44; 95% CI, 1.38 - 1.50).The findings are published online in JAMA Cardiology… (Medscape)