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PTSD in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Studying associations with stress and smoking

Publish date:: August 10, 2015

Women with high level of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have an elevated risk for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), independent of smoking, adding to emerging evidence that stress is an important determinant of physical health. This according to a study of 239 nurses with incident RA identified from among 54,224 female nurses who completed a questionnaire and a PTSD screen. Researchers found:

• The hazard ratio (HR) for ≥ 4 PTSD symptoms and incident RA was 1.76 compared to no history of trauma/PTSD symptoms, when adjusted for age, race, and socioeconomic status.

• Risk for RA increased with increasing number of PTSD symptoms.

• When smoking was added to the model, HR for RA remained elevated at 1.60.

• In a subgroup excluding women who smoked before PTSD onset, results were unchanged (HR, 1.68).

Citation: Lee YC, Agnew-Blais J, Malspeis S, et al. Posttraumatic stress disorder and risk for incident rheumatoid arthritis. [Published online ahead of print August 3, 2015]. Arthritis Care Res. doi: 10.1002/acr.22683.

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