Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Cardiovascular Disease

This work is a narrative review of the evidence for an association of PTSD with incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and the mechanisms that may carry that association, as well as the prevalence of PTSD due to CVD events and its associated prognostic risk. We discuss new research conducted since the publication of previous relevant systematic reviews and survey currently funded research in the portfolios of the two most active funders in the field. We conclude that PTSD is a risk factor for incident CVD, and a common psychiatric consequence of CVD events that may worsen CVD prognosis. There are many candidate mechanisms for the PTSD-CVD link, and a number of ongoing studies may soon point to the most important behavioral and physiological mechanisms to target in early phase intervention development. Similarly, targets are emerging for both individual and environmental interventions that may offset PTSD risk after CVD events.