Enduring somatic threat perceptions and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in survivors of cardiac events

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder due to acute cardiovascular events may be uniquely defined by enduring perceptions of somatic threat. We tested whether post-traumatic stress disorder at 1 month post–acute coronary syndrome indeed required both high peritraumatic threat during the acute coronary syndrome and ongoing cardiac threat perceptions. We assessed peritraumatic threat during emergency department enrollment of 284 patients with a provisional acute coronary syndrome diagnosis and cardiac threat perceptions and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms 1 month post-discharge. In a multiple regression model with adjustment for important covariates, emergency department threat perceptions were associated with higher 1 month post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms only among those with high levels of ongoing cardiac threat.