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Objective Physical exercise may serve as a protective factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but little is known about whether physical exercise is associated with PTSD in population‐based samples of military veterans. Methods We analyzed cross‐sectional data on the relation between self‐reported physical exercise frequency and the prevalence of probable PTSD in a nationally representative sample of 2832 U.S. military veterans who participated in the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study. Results A “U‐shaped” association best explained the relation between self‐reported exercise frequency and the prevalence of probable PTSD. Compared to veterans without probable PTSD, those with probable PTSD were nearly twice as likely to report no weekly exercise (52.3% vs. 29.3%) or daily (7 days/week) exercise (15.2% vs. 8.5%) and were nearly half as likely to report exercising a median of 3.5 days/week (32.6% vs. 62.1%). No exercise was associated with greater severity of emotional numbing and lower severity of anxious arousal symptoms, while daily exercise was associated with greater severity of re‐experiencing symptoms. Conclusions Results of this study suggest a “U‐shaped” association between self‐reported exercise frequency and the prevalence of probable PTSD among U.S. veterans. Veterans with probable PTSD were more likely than those without probable PTSD to report not exercising at all or exercising every day and were less likely to report exercising 1–6 days per week. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs) represent a newly defined category of disorders that include obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), hoarding disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, trichotillomania, and skin-picking disorder. Many environmental factors can influence the etiology and expression of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and OCD, such as exposure to environmental stressors, including traumatic and other life stressors. Stressors include incidents and experiences that disrupt a person’s homeostatic state and can range from mild acute stressors to traumatic stressors. Although all stressors are inherently stressful, most of them are not traumatic in nature. Although multiple researchers have reviewed the contributions of stress and trauma on OCD, currently no reviews exist that consider the associations among stress, trauma, and the other putative OCRDs. This chapter reviews the extant literature on the associations among OCRDs and stress, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder and discusses how these factors may influence the incidence, etiology, expression, and treatment of OCRDs.

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