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Psychological assessment of chemical injured war veterans compared to non‐chemical injured war veterans
Author(s) -
MohagheghMotlagh SeyedJafar,
Arab Atieh,
Momtazi Saeed,
MusaviNasab SeyedNureddin,
Saburi Amin
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
asia‐pacific psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1758-5872
pISSN - 1758-5864
DOI - 10.1111/j.1758-5872.2012.00207.x
Subject(s) - anxiety , depression (economics) , chemical warfare , mental health , psychiatry , medicine , chemical agents , clinical psychology , psychology , biology , economics , macroeconomics , biochemical engineering , microbiology and biotechnology , engineering
Chemical weapons induce various and long‐lasting physical complications that can affect mental health. We assessed the psychiatric status of chemical and non‐chemical injured war veterans. Methods We conducted a cross‐sectional study on chemical and non‐chemical war injured veterans. The P ersian version of the B eck Depressive Inventory, Social Anxiety Scale and both the PTSD C hecklist‐ M ilitary and I mpact of E vent S cale‐ R evised were used for evaluation of psychiatric condition. Data were analyzed and compared using SPSS version 16 and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results The prevalence of clinical depression was 47.5% and 48.3%, for anxiety it was 11.3% and 7.9%, and for post‐traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) it was 40% and 28.1% in chemical and non‐chemical injured veterans, respectively. Depression, anxiety and PTSD prevalence and scales did not show any significant difference between chemical and non‐chemical war injured veterans ( P < 0.05). There was a relationship between these variables and some factors, such as type of soldier dispatch by military organizations ( P < 0.05) and their occupations ( P < 0.05), but there was no relationship between these and accident time, literacy, and type of chemical agents ( P > 0.05). Discussion In the literature, the mental health of civilians who have been exposed to chemical agents could be affected because of long‐term adverse consequences, but in the present study psychological condition did not show any difference between chemical and non‐chemical war injured veterans. Further investigation on veterans is necessary.