Psychophysiologic and neuroendocrine findings in posttraumatic stress disorder: A review of theory and research

Abstract

Psychophysiologic and neuroendocrine investigations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are reviewed. Patients with PTSD have higher resting heart rate and blood pressure than asymptomatic controls, and urinary catecholamines are more elevated in PTSD subjects than in psychiatric patients without PTSD. Combat veterans with PTSD, when exposed to combat-related laboratory stressors, exhibit greater autonomic arousal than do various groups of control subjects. Diagnostic sensitivity in discriminating PTSD from non-PTSD subjects using biological variables is moderate, although specificity is substantially greater. The evidence supports models of conditioned autonomic nervous system arousal in PTSD.