engleski

Psychical difficulties in former prisoners of detention camps

The war imprisonment is a traumatic experience which is generally considered to have a potential to cause various psychical difficulties, in particular the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). During the aggression on Croatia, several thousands of Croatian soldiers and civilians were held in Serbian detention camps where they were tortured to extent of extreme stress. In this paper, the authors researched psychical effects of stress in former war prisoners. Examinees were observed in three separate groups. The first group was formed of all former prisoners of war (a total of 1458) that went through several medical examinations, including psychiatric one, after their release from detention camps. Examinations were performed at the University Clinic for Infectious Diseases "Dr. Fran Mihaljević" in Zagreb, in period from November 1991 to September 1992. The second group consisted of 82 former prisoners randomly chosen from a total of 735 prisoners released from the "Sremska Mitrovica" camp in August 1992. The third group contained 37 prisoners from "Manjaca" camp out of 100 invited to the control examination 6 months after their release. A classic psychiatric diagnostic interview was performed in all of the examinees immediately after their release, and in the 2nd and the 3rd group the modified Watson's PTSD questionnaire was also used in addition. In the 2nd group, prisoners were questioned immediately after they were released. Using classical psychiatric interview, a specific psychiatric diagnosis could have been established in 20% cases. Psychiatric symptoms were observed in 30-40% examinees (in 36% of former "Manjaca" camp prisoners). Through the use of Watson's questionnaire, a PTSD diagnosis was established in 85.7% (70 out of 82) prisoners of the 2nd group, and in 27% of the 3rd investigated group of prisoners. Former prisoners examined after release (the 2nd group) showed significantly higher prevalence of PTSD symptoms. All PSTD symptoms were found in more than 50% cases of the 2nd group, while in the 3rd group none of the symptoms were found in more then half of examinees. Results are discussed and one among the direct conclusions is that former prisoners of war, expecting their problems to disappear spontaneously, are unwilling to seek for psychiatric help.

psychical difficulties; posttraumatic stress disorder; former prisoners; detention camps

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