Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may increase the long-term risk for stroke and heart attack in blue-collar clean-up crews who worked in the aftermath of The World Trade Center plane attack on September 11, 2001, according to new research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may increase the long-term risk for stroke and heart attack in blue-collar clean-up crews who worked in the aftermath of The World Trade Center plane attack on September 11, 2001, according to new research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.
This is the first report from World Trade Center-Heart, a study investigating the association between the September 11 attack and cardiovascular outcomes among blue-collar workers involved in debris clearance.
“Even though there is evidence, PTSD is not considered as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, this study provides for the first time the evidence that PTSD is of the same magnitude for stroke and heart attack in men and women,” said Alfredo Morabia, M.D., Ph.D., study senior author and professor of epidemiology at City University of New York and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York.
PTSD is a psychological condition hallmarked by re-experiencing traumatic episodes, avoidance of triggers, hyperarousal and negative mood.
Read more at American Heart Association
Image: Professor of epidemiology, Alfredo Morabia, M.D., Ph.D., City University of New York and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York (Credit: Copyright Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health)
