USF Studies PTSD’s Physical Effects On Female Veterans

[VIDEO] By Sarah Pusateri -

Diabetes, cancer, obesity and depression. Researchers at the University of South Florida College of Nursing believe there’s a strong link between these problems and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Now, they’re getting a chance to prove the theory with the help from a grant from the U.S. Army.

“We were aware of literature showing that women veterans in the current conflicts were coming back with higher levels of PTSD. They are suffering difficulties in sort of transitioning back to civilian life,” says nursing professor Maureen Groer.

“They are having marital problems. And from the trauma literature, we know that those women are probably at risk for later mid-life diseases.”

This Air Force vet has her blood taken so researchers can study the body's physiological relationship with PTSD. (Pusateri / HealthyState.org)

Groer believes they’ve found a perfect model for measuring stress and trauma on women’s health throughout their lifetime. It’s called the Allostasis model.

“The basic premise of the model is that trauma and stress have cumulative effects on women. Particularly in environments where there is abuse and where there’s situations that women don’t feel in control of.”

She says the body responds to these stress triggers by altering the body’s physiological set points, changing them so you have a good stress response. The problem is, for some women, the stress never goes away.

“Over time, the stress response becomes not helpful, but deleterious, and leads to certain diseases,” Groer notes.

Recently the College of Nursing held an event honoring women veterans. They were given massages and facials, but were also given the opportunity to anonymously take part in the research project.

Fifty-four women agreed to participate, giving blood and hair samples and also blood pressure and weight measurements.

They also filled out a lengthy questionnaire which asked about depression, stress, PTSD and sexual trauma in the military. Groer says many of the women talked to staff about the problems they were having for the very first time. She hopes to follow these women veterans for several years to determine what the long terms effect of military stresses might be.

“Our ultimate goal is to help women and to improve the health of women. To understand why there are risks for ill health in women veterans and what we can do to ameliorate that situation – alleviate the distress they may feel.”

Women veterans who would like to participate in this research study can email Maureen Groer at mgroer@health.usf.edu

You can reach this reporter at Spusateri@wusf.org.