In a large and thorough genomic analysis, researchers have found that having a genetic risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may also raise the risk of developing lipid-related health problems like hypercholesteremia or having an oophorectomy. Their findings were published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Gita A. Pathak, Ph.D., of Yale University School of Medicine, and colleagues made use of data from the Psychiatric Genomic Consortium, which includes DNA samples from over 1 million individuals, and the UK Biobank, which in addition to genetic data includes comprehensive lifestyle and health information on more than 400,000 participants. They tested 710 lifestyle and health traits that have been linked with PTSD to see if any of these PTSD comorbidities might be due to genetic causes.
The researchers identified eight traits that are linked with genetic PTSD risk. Four of these traits were lipid-related disorders such as elevated cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, and other problems with lipid metabolism. The other four health outcomes associated with PTSD were:
- Receiving a prescription for a malaria medication
- Receiving a bilateral oophorectomy
- Having a cardiac or vascular implant
- Undergoing menopausal hormone replacement therapy
A further analysis suggested that most of these outcomes might be caused by genetic PTSD risk variants, whereas hormone replacement therapy might contribute to PTSD—although the researchers could not confirm the latter finding when running a second type of genetic analysis.
“However, a prospective study in the Nurses’ Health Study II reported that trauma and … PTSD symptoms are associated with initiating menopausal hormone therapy use in a dose-response manner,” Pathak and colleagues wrote. “The possible implication of hormone replacement therapy in PTSD pathogenesis is also supported by the effect of estrogens on fear extinction.”
The researchers also noted that some prior research in veterans suggested a connection between certain antimalarial drugs and mental health; these new findings suggest that connection may have been influenced by genetic PTSD risk.
For related information, see the American Journal of Psychiatry article “Leveraging Large-Scale Genetics of PTSD and Cardiovascular Disease to Demonstrate Robust Shared Risk and Improve Risk Prediction Accuracy," and the accompanying editorial, “From Soldier’s Heart to Shared Genetic Risk: PTSD and Cardiovascular Disease.”
(Image: Getty Images/iStock/supparsorn)
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