Balkans: A Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (ptsd) Study
peter.reardon on the ‘scars of war’:-
This study is but one outcome of the Bosnian war, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, (ptsd), it was welcome news personally that this emotional disorder is being recognised in one region, but sadly not all, of the former Jugoslavia.
I spent 12 months, until 1995, working in remote areas in Bosnia and can’t begin to comprehend the enormous need for individual treatment, or the financial cost to the government health service.
My work with aid agencies was in support of the vulnerable civilian population: women, children and the elderly, who were suffering their own traumas for which I hope, treatment for their stress has been provided.
This story in the Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) was written by Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade, in the Republic of Serbia, and is the first
“…on health among war veterans in Serbia…”
Zimonjic explains who the target groups were:
“The two-year study among 2,399 soldiers in 40 municipalities shows that 84 percent of war veterans have chronic health problems, most frequently coronary and blood vessels diseases, and 54.1 percent have mental health issues.”
The IPS report rightly supports the study in which Zimonjic informs us about the limitations in the region as a whole. For example
“In Bosnia, an association of Muslim war veterans from the town Tuzla recently announced that 518 of its members had committed suicide since 1995, and that about another 300 had attempted it…In Sarajevo … one in five of 55,000 demobilised fighters suffer from PTSD but were unable "to find adequate help and understanding in society for their problems."”
A different population from the veterans mentioned above are referenced only as:
“Some 200,000 people were forced into one or the other form of detention camps, and they have many problems they're trying to overcome either on their own or with little expert help.”
Survivors of detention camps range in age from young children, women, and the elderly from all regions in conflict: most of whom the ‘scars of war’ will remain in the families for generations to come.
Not included in this study were those who as children were forced to walk ahead of soldiers across fields that were thought to be mined: these survivors too are also in need of treatment.