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Twenty‐four‐hour ambulatory assessment of heart rate and blood pressure in chronic PTSD and non‐PTSD veterans
Author(s) -
Buckley Todd C.,
Holohan Dana,
Greif Jennifer L.,
Bedard Michele,
Suvak Michael
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1023/b:jots.0000022623.01190.f0
Subject(s) - ambulatory , ambulatory blood pressure , heart rate , blood pressure , posttraumatic stress , distress , reactivity (psychology) , psychology , anxiety disorder , basal (medicine) , psychiatry , clinical psychology , psychological distress , medicine , mental health , anxiety , alternative medicine , pathology , insulin
This study examined 24‐hr levels of ambulatory heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) in 2 groups of male veterans: 19 with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 17 who never met criteria for PTSD. The relationships between diagnostic status, basal cardiovascular activity, and cardiovascular reactivity to stress were examined. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that the PTSD group had higher resting HR than the non‐PTSD group. Moreover, the PTSD group showed greater BP reactivity during times of affective distress than the non‐PTSD group. The health care implications of these findings are discussed, as are directions for future research.