College Drinking May Aggravate PTSD Symptoms
It's estimated that 9 percent of all college students suffer from PTSD, an anxiety disorder that can develop after seeing or living through a frightening event. People with PTSD may experience flashbacks, nightmares and angry outbursts.
"College is a time of important developmental changes and a period of risk for heavy drinking, trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress symptoms," study principal investigator Jennifer Read, an associate professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo, said in a university news release.
"Heavy drinking is common on college campuses and related to risk for sexual assault, interpersonal violence and serious injury, any of which may trigger PTSD," Read added.
For the study, published recently in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, the researchers tracked almost 500 students through three years of college.
"We show that alcohol use and associated problems are linked over time to an exacerbation in PTSD symptoms, and that PTSD symptoms show a similar effect on alcohol consumption," Read said.
"Each affects the other. As such, both PTSD and heavy drinking are risk factors for one another, each with implications for the other over the course of college," Read added.
More information
Returning Guardsmen need help coping with family, money and job problems, experts say Credit: HealthDay
For more about PTSD, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
