Trauma Reenactments in Aging Veterans with Dementia

Abstract: This letter to the editor considers how the co-occurrence of conditions involving memory loss (dementia) and intrusive expression of trauma memories (PTSD) underscores the need to better understand their interactions. Dramatic presentations evaluated by the principal investigator (PI) (DLD) inspired this study, which was conducted by reviewing patient records and was approved by the Washington, DC, VA Medical Center institutional review board. Cases were identified from the complete roster of psychiatric evaluations for a geriatric medicine clinic over a 2-year period based on a diagnosis of dementia and a caregiver's report of new-onset disruptive behavior related to patients' traumatic military experiences. Controls were selected in a 2:1 ratio by identifying patients with dementia who had also served in a war zone but did not have reports of reenactments of traumatic military experiences.