Original scientific paper
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Population of Blind Invalids of the War in Croatia
Tina Runjić
Andrea Fajdetić
Mira Oberman Babić
Abstract
Persons that have participated in military activities in the war in Croatia and that have, due to injuries inflicted during
military actions, lost their vision are at greater risk of having posttraumatic stress dissorder (PTSD).These persons can
develop the PTSD as a reaction to traumatic military events that happened at the battle field but also, as a reaction to
the sight loss. Therefore assumption is that some of the persons that have been in the military actions and have lost their
sight due to injuries inflicted during the war will develop PTSD simptoms. The questionaire LASC-01 has been used
for assessing posttraumatic stress dissorder in blind invalids of Croatia war. This instrument is valid for determining
simptoms of PTSD but also for determining presence of other additional simptoms which are common for this disorder.
The sample in this research is 28 blind invalids of the war in Croatia and the results have shown that the PTSD dissorder
was present in 39,28 % of persons in this research. Some persons (that in the sample of this research) have shown more
intensive reactions in some (areas) simptoms of dissorder, for example - higher agitation . It has been determined that the
witnessing traumatic military actions at the war field is more responsible for PTSD development than vision loss itself.
Results have shown that there is significant correlation of frequence and intensity of witnessing traumatic military action
and simptoms of the dissorder (if the frequence and intensity was higher - the simptoms were stronger). Some simptoms
that are additional to posttraumatic stress disorder have been present: such as: sleeping problems, anxiety, hostile feelings,
agitation, memory difficulties and depression.
Keywords
posttraumatic stress disorder; visual impairments; blind invalids of the war in Croatia
Hrčak ID:
22102
URI
Publication date:
19.3.2007.
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