PTSD and Diabetes

Being angry activates the body's fight or flight system. You get an adrenal rush. I have often thought that being angry all the time from abused child PTSD might be a cause of the diabetes "epidemic" we are having. It turns out there is some evidence for that.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Incidence of Type-2 Diabetes: A Prospective Twin Study

Growing evidence has linked posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes, but most previous studies were cross-sectional. We examined the association between PTSD and incidence of diabetes in a prospective study of middle-aged male twins from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. Lifetime PTSD was diagnosed at baseline with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) according to DSM-III-R criteria. Subthreshold PTSD was defined by meeting some, but not all, criteria for PTSD. A total of 4,340 respondents without self-reported diabetes at baseline were included. Of these, 658 reported a new diagnosis of treated diabetes over a median of 19.4 years of follow-up. At baseline, twins with PTSD showed more behavioral and metabolic risk factors such as overweight and hypertension. The age-adjusted cumulative incidence of diabetes was significantly higher in twins with PTSD (18.9%) than those without PTSD (14.4%), [odds ratio (OR)=1.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.8], and intermediate in those with subthreshold PTSD (16.4%) (OR=1.2, 95% CI 0.9-1.5, p for trend=0.03). Adjustment for military, lifestyle and metabolic factors diminished the association. No significant association was found comparing twin pairs discordant for PTSD. In conclusion, PTSD was prospectively associated with a 40% increased risk of new-onset type-2 diabetes which was partially explained by a cluster of metabolic and behavioral risk factors known to influence insulin resistance. Shared biological or behavioral precursors which occur within families may lead to both PTSD and insulin resistance/diabetes. Thus, PTSD could be a marker of neuroendocrine and metabolic dysregulation which may lead to type-2 diabetes.

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