OBJECTIVES: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition which develops after experiencing a traumatic event. Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that over 90% of people with PTSD have at least one lifetime comorbid mental disorder. Existence of comorbid mental conditions may influence the treatment choice for PTSD. The main objective of the present study was to evaluate other mental health conditions and treatments of PTSD patients.

METHODS: This retrospective study examined data from a U.S. electronic health record database (Cerner Health Facts®). All outpatient visits (age ≥ 18 years) between 2012 and 2016 with a principal ICD9/10 diagnosis of PTSD were evaluated in this study. Chronic and acute PTSD were defined as a duration of symptoms of > 3 months, and 1-3 months respectively. Complications were identified by the corresponding ICD9/10 diagnosis codes. Medications were classified into categories (antidepressants and anti-anxiety) for further examination.

RESULTS: A total of 46,560 patients with PTSD were identified in the database, corresponding to 197,856 outpatient visits, likely indicating multiple visits per patient. Chronic PTSD was diagnosed in 43.2% of visits, while 1.9% of visits were associated with acute PTSD. The majority of visits (74.1%) comprised female patients. It was also observed that the highest percentage of PTSD patients were in the age group of ‘36-65 years’ (67.2%). Other mental health conditions prevalent in PTSD patients were depression and anxiety (49.0%), followed by issues with drugs, substance, and alcohol use (18.3%), eating disorders (2.6%), and suicidal thoughts and actions (0.1%). Prescriptions combining anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants (41.3%) were the most common, followed by anti-anxiety medications only (39.1%) and antidepressants only (19.6%).

CONCLUSIONS: This large database analysis provides insight into the real-world evidence of mental health conditions that pose as both risk factors and/or complications of PTSD, and their impact on medication prescribing to treat PTSD patients.