Psychopathology and well-being in civilian survivors of war seeking treatment: a follow-up study

The goal of the current study was to examine types of exposure to traumatic events and affective and anxiety disorders of 81 civilian war survivors seeking treatment for war-related stress almost one decade following the war in the area of former conflict. Furthermore, the study investigated changes in symptoms of mental health and in well-being amongst these individuals during a treatment period of 6 months. The results indicated that civilian war survivors seeking treatment reported multiple war-related traumatic events and high levels of psychiatric morbidity. Individuals assessed at follow-up (n = 67) reported no change in post-traumatic stress symptoms or psychological well-being, but improvement in symptoms of depression, overall psychiatric distress and quality of life. The only significant difference between participants classified as achieving clinically significant improvement as compared with those who did not achieve such change was in less symptom severity of depression, post-traumatic stress, general distress and higher psychological well-being at the time of first assessment. Neither the assessment of initial diagnoses nor war or post-war trauma types emerged as significantly different amongst the two groups.