Body-mass index and abdominal circumference in young patients with posttraumatic stress disorder after sexual assault

• Grant number: 19/12629-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2019
• End date: July 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Feijó de Mello
• Grantee: Bianca Di Mauro Pedro
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 14/12559-5 - Posttraumatic stress disorder and neuroprogression: new approaches to understand the effects of violence on mental functioning, AP.TEM

Abstract

Visceral fat, evaluated through the measurement of the waist circumference and body-mass index is a marker for mortality risk, by the reduction of life expectancy, and by the presence of metabolic diseases. The present evidence shows that patients with psychiatric diseases have a smaller life expectancy, and metabolic diseases are more prevalent when compared to the general population. Studies with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often had more men in their samples, many of them with veterans that have a chronic PTSD, and the psychoactive substance use disorder is a common comorbidity. In the present study, young women, controls, and patients with PTSD after a sexual assault composed the sample. Being young and having not a chronic PTSD decreased the bias for metabolic disorders. We evaluate data from a cohort of a big thematic project. The hypothesis is that the anthropometric and biomarker data from patients with PTSD indicated a high risk of metabolic disorders. The data were: higher BMI, higher abdominal circumference, increase on heart rate, and blood pressure, and higher levels of salivary cortisol, plasmatic ACTH, and PCR.