Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at veterans 8 years after war, to find out relation of PTSD with other demographic and health related variables and discover the impact of depression and trauma on PTSD on 687 veterans from six municipalities in Kosovo. Method: Participants were 687 war veterans selected from six regions of Kosovo during 2008. The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ-40), was administered to measure PTSD and Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25) for depression and anxiety. Pearson chi-square, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data. Results: Results indicated that 11.2 % of veterans even 8 years after the war ended were suffering from PTSD. Six percent of veterans with PTSD did not seek medical help. They reported to have had emotional problems and physical problems, but they did not seek medical help. The findings suggest that self-medication may be one way of veterans dealing with PTSD symptoms. Veterans with PTSD symptoms were more concerned with “family issues” than those without PTSD symptoms. Conclusions: The study found that 8 years after the war the veterans of the war in Kosovo suffer PTSD symptoms and that a good number of them do not seek help for this problem. The establishment of adequate services by the state would transform these veterans’ dealing with PTSD not into a moral challenge but into a fundamental right to equal and high-quality services.
Highlights
War, as an experience that directly or indirectly affects the life of the members of the armed forces, is considered a powerful source of stress and of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
The prevalence rate of PTSD in war veterans in Kosovo using Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-40 (HTQ) was found in 11.2% of the sample
This study explored the prevalence of the PTSD in war veterans in Kosovo
Summary
As an experience that directly or indirectly affects the life of the members of the armed forces, is considered a powerful source of stress and of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Indications of high level of post-traumatic stress and mental problems in individuals of all age groups, who were directly or indirectly involved in high emotional intensity events during wars and genocides, were reported by Cardozo, Vergara, Agani, and Gotway (2000), Cardozo et al (2004), and Pham et al (2004). 16 years after the 1998-1999 war, which had left a large part of the population with mood disorders (47.6%) and anxiety (41.8%; Priebe et al, 2010), a number of studies were conducted in Kosovo on post-traumatic stress in war victims. Those studies were focused on hospitalized persons (Ahern et al, 2004), relatives of the victims (Morina, Rudari, Bleichhardt, & Prigerson, 2010), victims of torture (Wang et al, 2012), refugees (Ai, Peterson, & Ubelhor, 2002), and adolescents (Gordon, Staples, Blyta, Bytyqi, & Wilson, 2008)
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