engleski

Prevalence of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder in Croatian war veterans

The aim of this investigation was to find out the prevalence of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder in Croatian war veterans (N=3504). The results show that, according to the strict psychometric criteria, 14, 6% of the Croatian war veterans, concluding from their score on M-PTSD, belong to the group above "cut of score" of 106, which speaks for PTSD. From the psychiatrist's assessment and by using DSM IV and/or WHO diagnostic criteria there follows that the frequency of the disorder in the examined population is 27%, thereby 16.6% of the subjects meet entirely the diagnostic criteria, and further 10, 4% have only some elements of the disorder. The groups defined by psychiatric interview differ significantly in their result on M-PTSD (F= 109.9 ; P<0, 000). Correlation coefficient between psychiatric diagnosis and the result on M-PTSD was also defined (r=0, 661 ; p<0, 05). The results as a whole point at the importance of clinical assessment when making a diagnosis and to heterogeneity of the group of patients. Up to now modern diagnostic guidelines are not precise enough in this respect, so this work represents a modest contribution to a possible future revision of the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.

Prevalence; PTSD; War veterans

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