Somatic symptom disorder common among patients hospitalized with PTSD
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Key takeaways:
- Somatic symptom disorders were common among people hospitalized for posttraumatic stress disorder.
- Somatic symptom disorders were associated with sex, race and certain psychiatric disorders.
SAN FRANCISCO — Among patients hospitalized for PTSD, there were associations between somatic symptom disorder and sex, race and psychiatric conditions, according to a poster presented at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.
Sanobar Jaka, MD, MPH, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University Langone Health, and colleagues evaluated data from adult inpatients with a primary diagnosis of PTSD who were included in a nationwide sample from 2018 to 2019. The researchers evaluated patient characteristics based on whether there was a somatic symptom disorder (SSD) co-diagnosis.
Overall, 0.43% of patients with PTSD also had SSD. Among patients with both disorders, 54.5% had an anxiety disorder, 54.5% had a depressive disorder, 63.6% had suicidal behaviors, 63.6% had personality disorders and 27.3% had substance use disorders.
The risk for SSD diagnosis was greatest among women (OR = 1.65); people with personality disorders (OR = 5.55); Asians, Pacific Islanders and Native Americans (OR = 2.79); people aged 36 to 50 years (OR = 1.32); and people falling below the 50th percentile for income (OR = 1.78).
“Comorbid SSD can worsen the quality of life for patients with preexisting PTSD symptoms, and it’s an ongoing, chronic cycle of trauma which doesn’t heal,” Jaka told Healio. “Therefore, these findings help physicians approach them in a systematic and modular approach that can be personalized based on experiences, symptoms and exposures, and they can target accordingly.”