Clinicians have long speculated that poor sleep may be a
mechanism involved in the higher risk of further cardiac events or death among
those with post-traumatic stress disorder following a heart attack, but the
association between PTSD and sleep after a heart event has been unknown.
Recent data from Columbia University Medical Center
researchers have shown that symptoms of PTSD after a heart attack are
relatively common. A PLOS ONE study (published in June 2012) found that 1 in 8
heart attack survivors suffer PTSD and that survivors with PTSD have a doubled
risk of having another cardiac event or of dying within one to three years,
compared with survivors without PTSD.