FRIDAY, Dec. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Female veterans who have lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) have high rates of psychiatric comorbidity and history of sexual trauma compared to women in the general population, according to a study in the December issue of The Journal of Urology.

Adam P. Klausner, M.D., of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in Richmond, and colleagues administered questionnaires, including the Urogenital Distress Inventory-6 and Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7, to 121 consecutive female veterans who were referred for LUTS to a urology clinic. The data were analyzed according to the women's age, race and obstetric history, as well as history of sexual trauma and psychiatric comorbidities. The women were compared to a control group of 1,298 women served by a primary care clinic.

The researchers found that, overall, the women referred for LUTS had higher rates than the control group for psychiatric comorbidities (64.5 versus 25.9 percent) and sexual trauma history (49.6 versus 20.1 percent). Also, scores on the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7 were significantly higher among the patients with psychiatric comorbidities and sexual trauma history than patients without those characteristics. The higher incontinence scores were associated with history of miscarriage and psychiatric comorbidities, while higher urogenital distress inventory scores were associated with history of miscarriage and age below 50 years.

"Psychiatric comorbidities and sexual trauma are prevalent in female veterans presenting for evaluation of LUTS and psychiatric comorbidities are associated with greater quality of life impact," the authors write.

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