Potential Association of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Decreased Bone Mineral Density in Repatriated Prisoners of War

Objective: We conducted a retrospective evaluation of bone mineral density data collected during routine medical follow-up evaluations of 241 Vietnam-era male repatriated prisoners of war, with and without the lifetime diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and 79 subjects in a comparison group. Methods: Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans evaluated total hip and lumbar spine T-scores. A multivariate analysis of covariance was performed on the data using age, body mass index, ethnicity, and reported alcohol consumption as covariates. Results: There was a significant effect of group on total hip, but not lumbar spine, T-scores. Pairwise comparisons revealed statistically lower total hip T-scores in repatriates with a lifetime history of PTSD in comparison to both the comparison group and repatriates without a lifetime history of PTSD. Conclusion: In this study of elderly repatriated prisoners of war, we noted an association between a lifelong history of PTSD and decreased bone mineral density at the hip.