engleski

Post traumatic stress disorder in armed robbery victims and ex-prisoners of war

The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters in 72 armed robbery victims (AR) at their work place. 19 were assaulted twice or three times, while 15 suffered mild or minor physical injury. Subjects were 47 female and 25 male employees who were having 1 to 11 months of sick leave period at the time of examination. According to psychiatric examination 38.9% fulfilled criteria for PTSD, while others had different combination of symptoms. Statistical analysis showed that the whole group dominantly expressed persistent re-experience of the event, followed by arousal symptoms. Those with full PTSD diagnosis did not differ from others in age, level of education, number of assaults, length of sick leave period or the fact that they had or had not been physically injured. No difference was found between those who suffered only one attack and those who were assaulted two or three times in a short period of time. The repetition of identical or very similar trauma situation did not contribute to the increased number of psychological problems measured by PTSD scales. Additionally we compared the structure of PTSD in AR victims and in a group of 100 male ex-prisoners of war (ex-POW). The results indicate greater occurrence of full PTSD in AR group, as well as re-experience and arousal symptoms combination in those with partial PTSD, while ex-POW group dominantly showed arousal symptoms as isolated cluster, followed by combination of re-experience and arousal symptoms.

post traumatic stress disorder; PTSD; armed robbery; prisoners of war; trauma victims

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