Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with extensive physical comorbidities, including lower gastrointestinal symptoms. Diagnostic uncertainty and poor therapeutic responses may result in more frequent colonoscopies than clinically necessary. Polypectomy is standard practice when polyps are identified, and if PTSD is a risk factor for polyp formation, one would expect a higher rate of polyp detection and removal in veterans with PTSD than those without PTSD.
Aim: To determine the association between PTSD and the rate of colonoscopy and polypectomy in Australian veterans.
Methods: Diagnostic and therapeutic colonoscopy rates in Australian male Veterans aged ≥50 years were examined by reviewing case records of veterans who accessed Department of Veterans' Affairs funded health services between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2018.
Results: A total of 138 471 veterans was included, of whom 28 018 had a diagnosis of PTSD; 56.4% were aged ≥65 years. Twenty-one percent of the entire cohort underwent at least one colonoscopy during the study period. Increased rates of diagnostic colonoscopy and polypectomy were associated with the presence of PTSD across all age brackets. The effect was empirically large as veterans with PTSD experience colonoscopy rates 76-81% greater than those without PTSD. Similarly, veterans with PTSD experienced polypectomy rates 76-81% greater than veterans without PTSD, and this increase persisted when controlling for the increased number of diagnostic colonoscopies they undergo.
Conclusion: The presence of PTSD has a marked impact on colonoscopy rates in Australian veterans. The increased polypectomy rate independent of increased colonoscopy rate suggests that PTSD is a risk factor for colonic polyp formation.
Keywords: colonoscopy; polypectomy; post-traumatic stress disorder; veterans.
© 2022 The Authors. Internal Medicine Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Royal Australasian College of Physicians.