Non-fatal cardiovascular outcome in patients with posttraumatic stress symptoms caused by myocardial infarction.

Objectives: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prospectively increases the risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) independent of other risk factors in otherwise healthy individuals. Between 10% and 20% of patients develop PTSD related to the traumatic experience of myocardial infarction (MI). We investigated the hypothesis that PTSD symptoms caused by MI predict adverse cardiovascular outcome.

Clinical diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder after myocardial infarction.

Background: Clinician-rated large-scale studies estimating the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to myocardial infarction (MI) and identifying predictors of clinical PTSD are currently lacking.

Hypotheses: We hypothesized that PTSD is prevalent in post-MI patients and that the subjective experience of the MI determines PTSD status.

Methods: We approached 951 post-MI patients with a questionnaire screening for PTSD symptoms related to their MI.

Trajectory of posttraumatic stress disorder caused by myocardial infarction: a two-year follow-up study.

Objective: A substantial proportion of patients develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following myocardial infarction (MI). Previous research on the trajectory over time of PTSD in post-MI patients is scant and refers to self-rated posttraumatic symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal course of an interviewer-rated diagnosis of PTSD and PTSD symptom severity following MI.