Psychiatric comorbidity and PTSD-related health problems in war veterans: Cross-sectional study

• Published in: The European journal of psychiatry Vol. 31; no. 4; pp. 151 - 157
• Main Authors: Klaric, M., Lovric, S., Kresic Coric, M., Galic, K., Coric, S., Franciskovic, T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier España, S.L.U 01-10-2017
• Subjects: Comorbidity; Post-traumatic; Veterans; Warfare; Post-traumatic; Warfare; Comorbidity; Veterans
• ISSN: 0213-6163; 2340-4469
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpsy.2017.09.005

PTSD rarely occurs on its own and opinions on the correlation between PTSD and its comorbidities are still divided.
To identify the comorbidity profile of psychiatric diagnoses in PTSD – affected war veterans and to determine the correlation with mental and health problems.
The experimental group consisted of 154 war veterans with combat-related PTSD. The control group was made of 77 veterans without PTSD. The study applied a general demographic questionnaire, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire – Bosnia and Herzegovina version and the MINI.
A 97.4% of PTSD-diagnosed veterans satisfied criteria for other mental disorders and that 44.8% suffered chronic somatic problems. More frequently they suffered from current depressive episode (41.6%), past depressive episode (36.4%), depressive episode with melancholic features (36.4%), dysthymia (13.6%), panic disorder with agoraphobia (11.0%), generalized anxiety disorder (82.5%) alcohol abuse (34.4%) and suicidal ideation (26.0%).
The study showed that chronic PTSD in war veterans was almost always accompanied by multiple psychiatric and often somatic comorbidities.