Prospective Bidirectional Relationship Between Sleep Duration and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms After Suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome.

Objective: Sleep disturbance is a "hallmark" symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Poor sleep (including short sleep) after combat-related trauma can also predict subsequent PTSD. Less is known about the association between sleep duration and PTSD symptoms when PTSD is induced by acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

Cardiac patients' perceptions of neighboring patients' risk: influence on psychological stress in the ED and subsequent posttraumatic stress.

Background: As many as 12% of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients screen positive for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms due to their cardiac event, and emergency department (ED) factors such as overcrowding have been associated with risk for PTSD. We tested the association of patients' perceptions of their proximity to a critically ill patient during ED evaluation for ACS with development of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PSS) in the month after hospital discharge.

Methods: Participants were enrolled in the REactions to Acute Care and Hospitalization (REACH) study during evaluation for ACS in an urban ED.

Anxiety sensitivity and medication nonadherence in patients with uncontrolled hypertension.

Objective: Anxiety sensitivity-fear of the negative social, physical, or cognitive consequences of anxiety related sensations-has been linked to cardiovascular disease and adverse cardiovascular health behaviors. Medication nonadherence may account for this association. We examined whether anxiety sensitivity was independently associated with objectively measured medication nonadherence in a multi-ethnic primary care sample.