A new study to be published today in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation indicates that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could cause strokes and heart attacks, reports Ivan Pereira for AMNY.
Reseachers interviewed nearly 7,000 non-firefighter workers and volunteers who worked at the site of the World Trade Center after the September 11th terrorist attacks and observed their health from 2012 until 2016. They found PTSD rates among this population were twice as high as cases in the general population. Those workers with PTSD has a stroke and heart attack rate 2.35 times higher than other recovery workers, the study says.
Dr. Alfredo Morabia, senior author of the study, told AMNY, “Heart attack and stroke should be considered a related disease in World Trade Center first responders and it should be incorporated along with their benefits and care.”
