In a new study, researchers found people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were 1.8 times as likely to have any infection as those without PTSD, ranging from being 1.3 times as likely to have meningitis, to 1.7 times as likely to have influenza, to 2.7 times as likely to have viral hepatitis.
The research was conducted by a team from the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and elsewhere.
The study is the first to examine the relationship between PTSD and dozens of infection types in a nationwide cohort.
It is also the first to find that PTSD affects infection risks for men and women differently, having, for example, more of an effect on a woman’s risk of urinary tract infection and a man’s risk of skin infection.
The team used Danish national records to look at the health histories of every Danish-born Danish citizen who received a PTSD diagnosis from 1995 through 2011 and matched each person with a comparison group of Danes of the same sex and age.
The researchers then compared the Danes’ histories of hospital care for 28 different kinds of infections.
They found that people with PTSD were 1.8 times as likely to have an infection than those without PTSD, as well as calculating the increased risk for each of the 28 kinds of infection.
Next, the researchers compared men and women with PTSD. They found that having PTSD had more of an effect on a woman’s risk for several kinds of infection—most notably urinary tract infection—than on a man’s risk.
Having PTSD also had more of an effect on a man’s risk of certain other kinds of infection, most notably skin infection.
The study adds to the growing evidence suggesting that PTSD and chronic severe stress are damaging to physical health.
This underscores the public health importance of PTSD prevention and treatment interventions.
The lead author of the study is BUSPH doctoral candidate Ms. Tammy Jiang.
The study is published in the journal Epidemiology.
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