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Cross-sectional work suggests that deployment-related posttraumatic sequelae are associated with increased disability in U.S. veterans deployed following the September 11, 2001 (9/11), terrorist attacks. However, few studies have examined the psychiatric and somatic variables associated with changes in functional disability over time. A total of 237 post-9/11 veterans completed comprehensive assessments of psychiatric and cognitive functioning, as well as a disability questionnaire, at baseline and 2-year follow-up. At baseline, higher levels of PTSD, depressive, and pain-related symptoms were associated with baseline global functional disability, semipartial r 2 = .036-.044. Changes in symptoms of PTSD, depression, pain, and sleep, but not anxiety or alcohol use, were independently associated with changes in functional disability, semipartial r 2 = .017-.068. Baseline symptoms of these conditions were unrelated to changes in disability, and cognitive performance was unrelated to disability at any assessment point. Together, this suggests that changes in psychiatric and somatic symptoms are tightly linked with changes in functional disability and should be frequently monitored, and even subclinical symptoms may be a target of intervention., (Published 2022. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.)

A recent study used functional neuroimaging and cognitive tasks to identify posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) subtypes. Specifically, this study found that a subgroup of patients with verbal memory impairment had a unique neural signature, namely, decreased ventral attention network (VAN) resting-state functional connectivity, and these same individuals responded poorly to psychotherapy. Although this represents one of the first studies to propose a neurocognitive subtype of PTSD and has far-reaching translational potential, the generalizability and specificity of the observed neural network and cognitive domain remain unclear. We attempted to conceptually replicate and extend these findings in a similar cohort of combat-exposed veterans ( n = 229) tested using a standardized battery of neuropsychological tests and a priori criteria for cognitive impairments. First, we conducted identical and complementary analyses to determine whether subjects with PTSD and neuropsychologically defined verbal memory deficits exhibited the VAN connectivity biomarker. Second, we examined whether cognitive deficits in other domains implicated in PTSD (executive functioning and attention) exhibited the VAN signature. Across multiple measures of verbal memory, we did not find that the subgroup of individuals with PTSD and memory impairments had lower VAN connectivity. However, a subgroup of individuals with PTSD and attentional impairments did have lower VAN connectivity, suggesting that the original subtype could have been related to attention and not memory impairments. Overall, our findings suggest that the previously identified memory-impaired PTSD subtype may not generalize. Further consideration of neuropsychological methods will be important for neurocognitive markers to be implemented clinically., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)