Women who experience the most severe form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at double the risk of developing diabetes, new research shows.
PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by living through or witnessing a traumatic event.
Researchers analyzed data from 49,739 women in the Nurses Health Study and found that the greater the number and severity of PTSD symptoms, the greater the risk of Type 2 diabetes.
By age 60, nearly 12 percent of women with severe PTSD had developed diabetes. Less than 7 percent of women with no trauma exposure had diabetes.
The research was published in JAMA Psychiatry.
One in nine women will have PTSD at over the course of their lives. This is twice the rate for men.
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