Letters to the Editor

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder As a Cause of Night Sweats

Am Fam Physician. 2003 Sep 1;68(5):806.

to the editor: The article, “Diagnosing Night Sweats,”1 in American Family Physician mentions anxiety as a cause for night sweats. As a physician in the city of Oxford, England, I care for a large number of refugees from military conflict zones such as Kosovo, Africa, Kashmir, and Afghanistan. The most common cause of night sweats in our practice is not tuberculosis or human immunodeficiency virus, but post-traumatic stress disorder. When patients present with night sweats, they are usually referring to night terrors when they awaken soaking wet and in terror after flashback-nightmares.

Send letters to Kenneth W. Lin, MD, Associate Deputy Editor for AFP Online, e-mail: afplet@aafp.org, or 11400 Tomahawk Creek Pkwy., Leawood, KS 66211-2680.

Please include your complete address, e-mail address, telephone number, and fax number. Letters should be fewer than 500 words and limited to six references, one table or figure, and three authors.

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