PTSD and respiratory illness: problems of 9/11 responders

摘要

According to the findings from research conducted over the past several years at Stony Brook Medicine's World Trade Center Health Program, as many as 60 percent of 9/11 World Trade Center (WTC) responders continue to experience clinically significant symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and lower respiratory illness. According to Benjamin Luft, MD, medical director of the program, and Edmund D. Pellegrino, professor of medicine, the two conditions (co-morbidities) so often coexist in this patient community that they can be thought of as one ailment-"a signature illness of WTC responders." They explain that this "illness" increases their disability and complicates long-term medical monitoring and care.