shared ptsd and paradox insomnia among wives of veterans with chronic war induced ptsd: a preliminary study

Background: war-induced post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) and its complications can be passed on to patients’ family members. objectives: this study aims to investigate ptsd symptoms and sleep quality among chronic ptsd patients and their wives. methods: ptsd symptoms were evaluated among 14 veterans with chronic ptsd and their wives by the ptsd checklist - military version (pcl-m). objective and subjective sleep data were collected by actigraphy and pittsburgh sleep quality index (psqi), respectively. data was analyzed using t - tests, χ2 , and pearson or spearman correlation coefficient by spss software version 16. results: according to pcl-m, seven wives were diagnosed with ptsd while others reported high pcl scores. total pcl-m scores did not differ significantly between veterans and wives: there was, instead, a significantly positive correlation between these two groups (r = 0.563; p = 0.036). veterans with ptsd reported significantly poorer sleep quality compared to their wives on the psqi (p < 0.05), however, not in the actigraphy. veterans’ psqi and actigraphy sleep indices differed significantly (p < 0.01). subjective sleep latency (41.79 ± 29.65) was significantly higher than objective (11.38 ± 28.64) among wives (p < 0.01). a significant positive correlation was observed between the two groups’ subjective sleep efficiency (r = 0.569; p = 0.03) and between ptsd severity and psqi total scores (r = 0.53; p < 0.01). conclusions: the wives of persons with ptsd indicated some degree of ptsd. veterans with ptsd reported poorer sleep quality than their wives. ptsd can negatively influence sleep quality.