Post-traumatic stress disorder and coping styles of war veterans twenty years after the war from Tuzla Canton.

Abstract

Aim To analyse symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and coping strategies of war veterans in Tuzla Canton twenty years after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Methods The study analysed a group of 120 war veterans from the Tuzla Canton who had experience of the war in BiH. For assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder Harvard Trauma Questionnaire was used, a version for Bosnia and Herzegovina and for assessment of coping styles Life Style Index was used. Results Concerning number of traumatic experiences of war veterans, it was found that they suffered 12 traumatic experiences. Most often traumatic experience was the participation in fighting and shelling (90.0%), knowledge of injuries in combat or landmine injuries of family members or friends (75.8%), exposure to snipers (74.2%). The most important were the symptoms of numbnessemotional numbness (2.62%), the symptoms of intrusion (2.58%) and the severity of the symptoms of PTSD (2.39%). The most common strategy of dealing with veterans of war was a projection (68.31%) and intellectualisation (56.20%). Conclusion War veterans have experienced polytraumatic experiences in war and show increased expression of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, emphasised psychosocial problems with a common defence mechanism in the form of projections twenty years after the war. War veterans are in need of continuous treatment in order to reduce long-term consequences of war trauma.