Psychiatric comorbidity and PTSD-related health problems in war veterans: Cross-sectional study

Abstract Background and objectives PTSD rarely occurs on its own and opinions on the correlation between PTSD and its comorbidities are still divided. Methods To identify the comorbidity profile of psychiatric diagnoses in PTSD – affected war veterans and to determine the correlation with mental and health problems. Participants and methods The experimental group consisted of 154 war veterans with combat-related PTSD. The control group was made of 77 veterans without PTSD. The study applied a general demographic questionnaire, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire – Bosnia and Herzegovina version and the MINI. Results A 97.4% of PTSD-diagnosed veterans satisfied criteria for other mental disorders and that 44.8% suffered chronic somatic problems. More frequently they suffered from current depressive episode (41.6%), past depressive episode (36.4%), depressive episode with melancholic features (36.4%), dysthymia (13.6%), panic disorder with agoraphobia (11.0%), generalized anxiety disorder (82.5%) alcohol abuse (34.4%) and suicidal ideation (26.0%). Conclusion The study showed that chronic PTSD in war veterans was almost always accompanied by multiple psychiatric and often somatic comorbidities.