We all know that when people go off to war it is a life-changing experience, but for older veterans it can be more than that. It has been shown that older veterans who have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have almost double the risk of developing dementia when compared to other veterans.
The recent findings were presented at an Alzheimer’s Association meeting held in Vienna and are the first to link PTSD, which is a debilitating anxiety disorder that can be caused by trauma of wartime, with dementia. Dr. Ronald Petersen from the Alzheimer’s Association and an Alzheimer’s researcher from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota said, “The million-dollar question is why.”
If you are wondering if you have symptoms of PTSD here are three helpful categories with different symptoms of the disorder.
Symptoms of Re-Experiencing
- Frequently experiencing upsetting memories or thoughts about a traumatic event.
- Having nightmares that are recurrent.
- Feeling or acting as though the traumatic even were happening again, which is also called a “flashback.”
- Having strong feelings of distress when you are reminded of the traumatic event.
- Being physically responsive, such as experiencing sweating or a surge in heart rate, to reminders of the event.
Symptoms of Avoidance
- Making a strong effort to avoid feelings, thoughts, or conversations about the event.
- Avoiding people or places that remind you of the event.
- Having trouble remembering important parts of the event.
- Experiencing a loss of interest in important, once positive, actives.
- A feeling of distance from others.
- Difficulty experiencing positive feelings of love or happiness.
- Feeling as though your life could be cut short.
Hyperarousal Symptoms
- Having trouble falling or staying asleep.
- Feeling more irritable than usual or having outburst of anger.
- Having difficulty concentrating on things.
- Feeling constantly “on guard” or like danger is lurking just around the corner.
- Being “jumpy” or getting easily startled.
Many of these symptoms are considered to be an extreme version of our body’s natural stress response. Understanding our body’s natural response to danger or threat (the fight or flight response) can help us to better understand the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Some previous studies have found that PTSD was liked with diminished brain volume in the hippocampus, which is a part of the brain that is involved with stress and memory response. Alzheimer’s is considered the most common form of dementia, which is marked by loss of memory and other cognitive, or thinking abilities which include the ability to identify objects, think abstractly, and even the ability to speak.
Some of the older veterans that suffer from PTSD have shown signs of cognitive declines. Dr. Kristine Yaffe from the University of California, San Francisco, analyzed the data on approximately 53,155 veterans that were diagnosed with PTSD and approximately 127,938 veterans that did not have PTSD, by using the Department of Veterans Affairs National Patient Care Database. The veterans that were used for the study had an average age of 69.
More than 10 percent of the veterans that suffered from PTSD developed new cases of dementia when compared with the 6.6 percent of those that did not have PTSD. Even after the researchers adjusted for other risk factors for dementia, such as depression or traumatic brain injury, the veterans with PTSD still had double the risk when compared with the other veterans used in the study.
Yaffe stated, “Further research is needed to fully understand what links these two important disorders. With that knowledge we may be able to find ways to reduce the increased risk of dementia associated with PTSD.”