Almost half the people questioned had symptoms of depression and more than one in eight had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
American researchers teamed up with doctors from a university hospital in Belgrade and a district hospital in a Serbian enclave in Laplje Selo, Kosovo to assess the mental state of patients visiting their accident and emergency departments. 562 patients, none of who were suffering from acute conditions, completed a questionnaire about their exposure to traumatic events and their experience of a variety of symptoms of depression or PTSD.
Older patients, those with lower levels of social support, and those that were unemployed were more likely to have symptoms of depression. People who had been a refugee longer than 30 days and those living in remote Laplje Selo were more likely to be suffering from symptoms of PTSD. A large proportion of participants in this study had features of both mental health disorders.
It is perhaps not surprising that Serbian residents of Laplje Selo are at high risk of suffering from a mental health disorder. The researchers write, "despite the general improvement of conditions in the region, the Serb minority continues to lack freedom of movement and access to basic services including access to health care."
The prevalence of mental health disorders may be overestimated in this study, as the sample is made up of patients in emergency departments who are more likely to be suffering from a mental health disorder than the general population. However, the study does show that physicians in emergency departments are frequently missing opportunities to diagnose mental health conditions.
"What this project tries to highlight is the burden that mental health dysfunction may have on patients that present for care in the aftermath of war," said William Fernandez, one of the authors of the study. He says that the main aim of his project was to raise physicians' awareness that patients in the acute care setting may also be suffering from mental health problems.
"We, as providers, should optimize our screening of persons at-risk for the mental health conditions arising as a consequence of war, such as PTSD and/or depression, and refer them to outpatient treatment," said Fernandez. "Public health officials, clinicians, and others with an interest in humanitarian work should bear in mind that a considerable number of patients who visit emergency departments may still harbour the mental health consequences of war, even three years following the end of armed conflict."
This release is based on the following article:
War-related psychological sequelae among emergency department patients in the former Republic of Yugoslavia
Brett D Nelson, William G Fernandez, Sandro Galea, Sarah Sisco, Kerry Dierberg, Gordana Subaric Gorgieva, Arijit K Nandi, Jennifer Ahern, Mihajlo Mitrovic, Michael VanRooyen, David Vlahov
BMC Medicine 2004, 2:23
To be published 1 June 2004
Upon publication this article will be freely available according to BMC Medicine's Open Access policy via: http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmed
Please quote the journal in any stories that you write, and link to the article if you are writing for the web.
For further information, please contact one of the authors William G Fernandez by email at William.Fernandez@BMC.org or by phone on 617-414-4927
Alternatively, or for more information about the journal or Open Access publishing, contact Gemma Bradley by phone on 44-207-631-9931 or by email at press@biomedcentral.com
BMC Medicine (http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmed/) publishes original research articles, technical advances and study protocols in any area of medical science or clinical practice. To be appropriate for BMC Medicine, articles need to be of special importance and broad interest.
BMC Medicine is published by BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com), an independent online publishing house committed to providing Open Access to peer-reviewed biological and medical research. This commitment is based on the view that immediate free access to research and the ability to freely archive and reuse published information is essential to the rapid and efficient communication of science. BioMed Central currently publishes over 100 journals across biology and medicine. In addition to open-access original research, BioMed Central also publishes reviews, commentaries and other non-original-research content. Depending on the policies of the individual journal, this content may be open access or provided only to subscribers.
Journal
BMC Medicine