A recent study has found an apparent link between post traumatic stess disorder, PTSD, and Alzheimer’s disease in older veterans.
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20100607/posttraumatic-stress-disorder-linked-to-dementia
The research was described as the first to find a connection between combat-related PTSD and late-life dementia. It found a significant increase in the likelihood of developing dementia — nearly twice as high — for ex-solidiers who have PTSD compared to those who don’t.
Deborah Barnes at the University of California in San Francisco conducted the research, with her team keeping track of more than 180,000 veterans for seven years. Of that group, more than 53,000 had been diagnosed with PTSD.
Nobody in the group had dementia in late 2000, but by late 2007 about 31,000, or 17 percent, developed faulty memories and cognitive disorders. As it turned out, the veterans with PTSD had roughly an 11 percent chance of getting dementia over the seven-year period of the study, compared with 7 percent for vets who don’t suffer from PTSD.
And after doing some adjustments of risk factors, the study determined that the veterans with PTSD were 77 percent more likely to get dementia than vets without PTSD.
Barnes’ study was financed by the Department of Defense and the National Institute on Aging, and was published in the June issue of the journal “Archives of General Psychiatry.”
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/67/6/608
The study, however, is not definitive, according to Barnes. For example, it remains unclear if suffering from PTSD multiplies veterans’ risk for dementia as they grow older, or if recurring PTSD is an early symptom of dementia in older veterans.
