Worsening of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms with cognitive decline: case series.

We present three cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms associated with cognitive decline. Patient age ranged from 57 to 70 years old and all patients had war-related PTSD. In each case, the patient had a history of PTSD that was under fairly good control until the onset of cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease or vascular or alcohol-related dementia. These cases suggest that neurodegeneration of memory pathways may disinhibit symptoms of PTSD.