Urinary Catecholamine Excretion and Severity of PTSD... : The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (original) (raw)

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Urinary Catecholamine Excretion and Severity of PTSD Symptoms in Vietnam Combat Veterans

YEHUDA, RACHEL Ph.D.1; SOUTHWICK, STEVEN M.D.2; GILLER, EARL L. M.D., Ph.D.3; XIAOWAN, MA2; MASON, JOHN W. M.D.2

1Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai Medical School, New York, and Department of Psychiatry, 116-A, Bronx Veterans Administration Medical Center, 130 West Kingsbridge Road, Bronx, New York 10468

2National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Psychiatry Service, West Haven Veterans Administration Medical Center, West Haven, Connecticut

3Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut Health Center, Parmington, Connecticut

Abstract

In the present study, we replicated and extended our previous findings of increased 24- hour urinary catecholamine excretion in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine concentrations were measured in 22 male patients with PTSD (14 inpatients and eight outpatients) and in 16 nonpsychiatric normal males. The PTSD inpatients showed significantly higher excretion of all three catecholamines compared with both outpatients with PTSD and normal controls. Dopamine and norepinephrine, but not epinephrine, levels were significantly correlated with severity of PTSD symptoms in the PTSD group as a whole. In particular, these catecholamines seemed related to intrusive symptoms. None of the catecholamines were correlated with severity of depression. The findings support the hypothesis of an enhanced sympathetic nervous system activation in PTSD, and suggest that increased sympathetic arousal may be closely linked to severity of certain PTSD symptom clusters.