engleski

Wives of the Croatian War Veterans Treated for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Chronic Pain

The wives of the Croatian war veterans are in most cases those who try to maintain the earlier family balance. In the present investigation the authors considered mental consequences of life with a husband suffering from PTSD. Two groups of wives of the veterans were examined: the group of wives with husbands suffering from PTSD, and the group of wives with husbands free of PTSD. The instruments used were M-PTSD scale for PTSD, HSCL-25 for depression and anxiety, questionnares about demographic data and chronic pain. The results reveal that the wives of the veterans suffering from PTSD are significantly more depressive and anxious, express more often symptoms of vicarious traumatization, and have more often painful symptoms were the usual medical treatment achieves no results, in comparison with the group of wifes of the veterans without PTSD. It can be concluded that PTSD of a veteran affects significanty psychophysical condition of his wife and that she suffers considrebly by his illness.

PTSD; weteran wives

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