Treating PTSD to lower heart disease risk in veterans
Official title: Evidence-based Treatment for PTSD and Cardiovascular Disease Risk
Funded at University of California Los Angeles · NIH-11264826 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at whether effective PTSD treatments can reduce heart disease and death risk for veterans with PTSD.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California Los Angeles NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Los Angeles, United States) |
| Project start | February 1, 2025 |
| Project end | November 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $659,928 |
| NIH project number | 5R01HL176899-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11264826 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Veterans with a documented diagnosis of PTSD who receive care in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and have records of psychotherapy or antidepressant treatment are the population studied.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not veterans, do not get care in the VA system, or lack documented PTSD treatment in their VA records would not be included and would not directly benefit from this project.
What this research studies
If you are a veteran with PTSD and receive care in the VA, researchers will use VA medical records to see how PTSD treatments relate to later heart disease and survival. They will use a huge database with up to 20 years of records from over 2 million veterans and computer algorithms that read clinic notes to find who got psychotherapy and who took antidepressants. They will also track changes in PTSD symptoms on routine self-report measures and link those changes to diagnoses of cardiovascular disease and to death records. This is an observational analysis of existing health records rather than a new treatment program you would attend.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could show that treating PTSD lowers the chance of heart disease and death, guiding care priorities for veterans with PTSD.
How similar studies have gone: Past research links PTSD to higher heart disease risk, but no large study has yet shown that receiving evidence-based PTSD treatment reduces cardiovascular disease or mortality, so this is a novel, large-scale analysis.
Where this research is happening
-
University of California Los Angeles
Los Angeles, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Sumner, Jennifer a — University of California Los Angeles
- Study coordinator: Sumner, Jennifer a
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.