Original scientific paper
PTSD PREVALENCE IN REFUGEES FROM CROATIA AND ITS POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIP WITH BEING HELD IN DETENTION CAMP
Dragica Kozarić-Kovačić
; Police Academy, Zagreb
Tajana Ljubin
; Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče, ZagrebPsychiatric Hospital Vrapče, Zagreb
Mirjana Grubišić-Ilić
; Police Academy, Zagreb
Sunčanica Ljubin-Sternak
; Croatian Institute for Public Health, Zagreb
Abstract
The aim of the study was to explore the prevalence of PTSD in
refugees from Croatia and investigate the relationship between
PTSD and the number of experienced traumas, especially
with regard to being held in detention camp, as well as the relationship
between PTSD and demographic variables. A group of
refugees, consisting of 34 men and 54 women, mean age 43, were
studied. Trauma Questionnaire and Watson's PTSD Interview
were applied. The group experienced three traumas, on average;
whereas after two years of life in captivity the prevalence of PTSD
was 45.45%. It was established that the total of PTSD symptoms
grow with the increasing number of traumas and with the refugee's
age, but decrease with the person's higher education. The
group of refugees (N=18) who were kept in detention camp no
longer than one month and were not tortured, was compared with
the comparative refugee group (N=18), equal in gender, age, education
and number of traumas experienced. The groups had
shown statistically the same amount of total PTSD symptomatics.
Conclusively, the results indicate that young adulthood and higher
education are protective factors in reaction to trauma. A short
period of time spent in detention camp, without torture, did not
have a separate effect on PTSD symptomatics in the group of po-
Iytraumatized adult refugees.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
31700
URI
Publication date:
1.3.1997.
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