engleski

Homocysteine levels in war veterans

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with different psychiatric and somatic comorbidities. PTSD patients have elevated lipoprotein levels, while recent studies point to the importance of homocysteine as a risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, as well as for vascular dementia. An increase in homocysteine levels causes cognitive deficits associated with age, neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular disease, playing a role in Alzheimers disease, schizophrenia, depression, and concentration and memory impairments. Subjects & Methods. Homocysteine levels were compared in 3 groups of subjects: Veterans with PTSD (n=66), veterans exposed to trauma without PTSD (n=33), and healthy volunteers (n=42). Subjects were matched according to age, risk factors for changes in lipid status, body mass index (BMI) and duratin of exposure to traumatic experiences. Non of the subjects had a history of acute psychosis, dementia, schizophrenia, mood disorders, pesonality disorders, substance abuse including alcohol, acute medica disease, cardiocascular or neurological disorders, diabetes and liver disease. The following instruments were used: the Clinical-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), questionary on risk factors for changes in lipid status. For statistical analysis we used Shapiro-Wilk&#8217; s test, t-test, correlation analyses, two-way ANCOVA and Fisher&#8217; s LSD post-hoc test. Results. Groupes differed in smoking status with the highest percentage of smokers in PTSD group (p<0.001). The number of cigarettes per day showed positive correlation with the level of homocysteine (p<0.05). Homocysteine was higher in smokers within the group of veterans without PTSD in comparison with smoking or non-smoking healthy volunteers (p<0.05). Non-smoking PTSD patients had higher homocysteine compared to non-smoking veterans without PTSD, smoking and non-smoking halthy volunteers. Age showed positive correlation with homocysteine. Conclusion. Our results showed positive correlation of smoking, age and BMI with homocysteine levels in the group of subjects with PTSD. A higher number of cigarettes, older age and BMI had an effect on higher homocysteine levels.

homocysteine; war veterans; PTSD; posttraumatic stress disorder

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