*2.2. Participants*

We used two ways of selecting participants (for a detailed description see Castro-Vale et al. [35]): 75.4% were from an outpatient clinic of the Portuguese Disabled Veterans Association (ADFA), and 24.6% were from three lists of war veterans' companies from war time. Sixty-one male, Caucasian veterans (mean age of 65.25 (range = 60–74, SD = 3.37 years)) from the Portuguese colonial wars agreed to participate.

Participants with and without lifetime PTSD were included if they fulfilled the war-related DSM-IV [36] criterion A for PTSD, and also if they had children (as this is part of a larger study on the neurobiological intergenerational transmission of PTSD). The general exclusion criteria for participants were the following: the presence of neurologic, infectious, or any active medical illness, and any DSM-IV psychotic, bipolar, or neurocognitive disorders. Participants with lifetime PTSD were also excluded if they had current substance-related disorders. The specific exclusion criteria for the war veterans' group without PTSD were the following: if they had ever had PTSD and if they also had any current psychiatric disorder.
