TY - JOUR T1 - Association of airflow limitation with trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/09031936.00028010 SP - erj00280-2010 AU - C. Spitzer AU - B. Koch AU - H.J. Grabe AU - R. Ewert AU - S. Barnow AU - S.B. Felix AU - T. Ittermann AU - A. Obst AU - H. Völzke AU - S. Gläser AU - C. Schäper Y1 - 2010/01/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2010/08/19/09031936.00028010.abstract N2 - Trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are associated with self-reported asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, these conditions have not yet been related to objective measures of lung function.1772 adults from the general population were assessed regarding their medical histories and spirometric lung function. Additionally, they were administered a PTSD interview, and assigned to three groups: no trauma; trauma, but no PTSD; and trauma with PTSD.Adjusting for sociodemographic, clinical and life-style factors, subjects with PTSD had significantly higher odds ratios (ORs) for most asthma-related symptoms than PTSD negative participants (ORs ranging from 3.2 to 8.8). The mean ratio of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) was lowest in the PTSD group and highest in those without trauma exposure. Traumatic stress was independently associated with FEV1 and FEV1/FVC. Participants with PTSD compared to those without had a significantly increased risk for airflow limitation independent of its definition (ORs ranging from 4.2 to 7.8).This is the first study relating traumatic stress and PTSD, respectively, to objective parameters of lung function. Our findings suggest an association of trauma exposure and PTSD with airflow limitation, which may be mediated by inflammatory processes. ER -