War Vets with Dementia Risk

A new study carried out by the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, says that veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder have a greater risk of developing dementia as they age.

Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, is caused by traumatic and life-threatening experiences and the higher rates of PTSD can be found among war veterans.

The study that included 10,481 veterans ages 65 and older concluded that about 30 percent of Vietnam War veterans and 12 to 20 percent of Iraq War veterans have PTSD.

The patients had visited the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Texas at least twice between 1997 and 1999, and their records were followed though 2008.

The conclusions are that among those that suffer from PTSD, without any combat injuries, 11.1 percent had developed dementia, while among the vets without the disorder, only 4.5 developed dementia.

Study researcher Dr. Salah Qureshi, which is also a psychiatrist at the center, says that there is no undeniable result that this is all a matter of cause and effect:

“We do not know if PTSD is the cause of higher rates of dementia,' he told MyHealthNewsDaily, but “it will be interesting to see if treating PTSD successfully lowers the dementia rates in these individuals.”

As for frequency of dementia among vets who suffered combat injuries, 7.2 percent of those with PTSD developed dementia whereas only 5.9 percent of those that did not have PTSD did.

Everyone who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, also has mood problems, nightmares thus difficulty sleeping, and almost a hateful attitude towards everything and everyone that reminds them of the traumatic experience.

The next step of the research is to determine whether the brains of people with PTSD have a predisposition of developing dementia, or if the two diseases have common elements.

Qureshi said that “it is important to determine if treating PTSD effectively can reduce the risk of dementia.

“Returning soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq should follow the recommendations made by their clinicians.”

This research was published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, as reported by LiveScience.