Stony Brook post-9/11 health study gets grant

A Stony Brook researcher is getting a $1 million federal grant to study the link between genetic changes, post-traumatic stress disorder and respiratory illnesses in 9/11 responders.

Eleven years after the fall of the Twin Towers, PTSD and respiratory illnesses, such as asthma, reactive airway disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pulmonary fibrosis, remain persistent and not easily treated among responders exposed to trauma and a toxic stew.

About 10 percent of about 60,000 responders monitored and/or treated by the federal World Trade Center Health Programs have both conditions, according to Dr. Benjamin Luft, director of the WTC health programs on Long Island and Brooklyn.

The two-year study, headed by Luft, a professor of medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, would be the first to look at which genes might be turned on or off among responders with PTSD and respiratory illnesses.

"This is a very important study because it will examine how, when you have extensive trauma, it impacts the person not only psychologically but impacts them physically and may predispose them to certain diseases," Luft said.

The hope, he said, is that medications could eventually be developed to target those dysfunctional genes.

The study, funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, will have five arms: The genomes of 100 responders with both illnesses will be compared to those of 100 responders who have only PTSD; 100 responders with only respiratory illness; 100 healthy responders; and 100 healthy controls not involved in 9/11.

Luft will work with Dr. Sandro Galea, chairman of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. In 2010, Galea published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that looked at 23 Detroit inner-city residents -- not 9/11 responders -- with PTSD and 76 without. The study found the PTSD sufferers had a hyper-aroused immune system.

"Over time, PTSD seems to have a lot in common with immune dysfunction," Galea said.

Symptoms of PTSD can include recurring flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, memory loss, emotional numbness, sleep and anger problems and hypervigilance.

Stony Brook epidemiologist Evelyn Bromet, an expert in the mental health impact of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster who also will work with Luft on the study, said she believes PTSD may not only affect physical illnesses, but it may also work the other way around. "My theory is that they feed off each other," she said. "It's really scary to have trouble breathing."

Carol Paukner of Islip agreed. On 9/11, she was a NYPD transit officer working about a block away from the World Trade Center. She survived the collapse of both towers and helped hundreds to safety.

Retired since 2004, the 47-year-old still battles PTSD. She has flashbacks and nightmares and a plane flying overhead can cause a full-blown panic attack. She also suffers from asthma, reactive airway disease, sinus problems, chronic headaches, fibromyalgia and digestive disorders.

"My whole body hurts all the time," she said.

She plans to join the study, which she hopes will help responders and doctors alike.

"The psychological and physical come together," she said. "I think there's a light at the end of the tunnel if everybody gets on the same page."