Women with PTSD More Prone to Obesity and Weight Gain

Women diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more susceptible to obesity and weight gain, says a study.

The study was conducted by the researchers of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Harvard School of Public Health. The study was spearheaded by Dr. Karestan Koenen, PhD, Mailman School associate professor of Epidemiology. This is the first study analyzing the link between PTSD and obesity.

Post-traumatic stress disorder refers to mental and emotional trauma caused by events like sexual assault, rigorous psychological shocks or injuries.

PTSD is not just a mental health issue," Koenen said in a press release. "Along with cardiovascular disease and diabetes, we can now add obesity to the list of known health risks of PTSD."

Feeling numb, under threat and social avoidance are some of the common symptoms people diagnosed with this disorder experience.

The research says that one out of nine women suffer from this disorder in their lives. Women face this stress disorder twice often as men.

"The good news from the study is that it appears that when PTSD symptoms abate, risk of becoming overweight or obese is also significantly reduced," said Laura D. Kubzansky, the first author of the study and Ph.D, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard School of Public Health.

"However, despite the growing evidence of potential far-reaching problems associated with PTSD, it's estimated that only half of women in the United States with the disorder are ever treated. Hopefully, wider recognition that PTSD can also influence physical health will improve this statistic, leading to better screening and treatments, including those to prevent obesity," Dr. Kubzansky continued.

The researchers examined data of above 50,500 women of ages 22 to 44. These women participated in the Nurses' Health Study II, which was held between 1989 and 2009. The women were questioned about the most terrible shock they experienced in their lives and faced any symptoms after that.

The authors found that women with normal body mass who got PSTD and experienced its symptoms over a month or more during the study were 36 percent more prone to obesity and weight gain than women who just suffered from trauma and no PSTD. Women who faced PSTD symptoms before the study period were found to have an increase in their body mass index at a quicker rate compared to women without the disorder.  

The study also shed light on the fact that nurses are lesser prone to PSTD's impact on obesity than other women.

"Nurses are great for studies because they report health measures like BMI with a high degree of accuracy," said Dr. Koenen. "But they are also more health conscious and probably less likely to become obese than most of us, which makes these results more conservative than they would otherwise be."

Dr. Kubzansky blamed the symptoms of the disorder to be the trigger in weight gain and not the trauma.

"We looked at the women who developed PTSD and compared them to women who experienced trauma but did not develop PTSD. On the whole, before their symptoms emerged, the rate of change in BMI was the same as the women who never experienced trauma or did experience trauma but never developed symptoms," Dr. Kubzansky explained.

Scientists and researchers have guesstimated how the symptoms affect women biologically. Over-activation of stress hormones is one of the predicted reasons.  PTSD is also said to cause disturbances in the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA), they are responsible for functioning various body processes like metabolism.

Unhealthy behavior used to cope with stress is also held responsible for gaining extra pounds. Further research on PTSD is being done to figure out whether the disorder raises craving for processed food in women and cuts their habit of exercising.