The association between post-traumatic stress disorder and coronary artery disease: a meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES: There are some psychosocial factors that have similar importance to biological factors in the genesis of coronary diseases. However, reasons for high rates of coronary heart disease in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are yet to be fully elucidated. Using a meta-analysis, we investigated the longitudinal relationship between PTSD and coronary heart disease (CHD) as an independent factor in the aetiology of CHD. METHODS: The databases of Medline, EBSCOhost and Psychoinfo were electronically searched for relevant articles. RESULTS: The pooled hazard ratio (HR) for the magnitude of the relationship between PTSD and CHD was an HR of 1.61, and p-value of p CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates an association between CHD and PTSD