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Complex trauma of war captivity: a prospective study of attachment and post-traumatic stress disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2008

Z. Solomon ,
R. Dekel  and
M. Mikulincer
Z. Solomon*
Affiliation:
The Adler Research Center for Child Welfare and Protection, Tel Aviv University, Israel
R. Dekel
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, Bar Ilan University, Israel
M. Mikulincer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Israel
*
*Address for correspondence: Professor Z. Solomon, Bob Shappell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

Victims of war captivity sometimes suffer from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a unique form of PTSD that entails various alterations in personality. These alterations may involve changes in attachment orientation.

Method

The sample comprised two groups of veterans from the 1973 Yom Kippur War: 103 ex-prisoners of war (ex-POWs) and 106 comparable control veterans. They were assessed at two points in time, 18 years and 30 years after the war.

Results

Ex-POWs suffered from more post-traumatic symptoms than controls at both measurements points and these symptoms increased only among ex-POWs from Time 1 to Time 2. In addition, both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance increased with time among ex-POWs, whereas they decreased slightly or remained stable among controls. Finally, the increases in attachment anxiety and avoidance were positively associated with the increase in post-traumatic symptoms among both study groups. Further analyses indicated that early PTSD symptoms predicted later attachment better than early attachment predicted later PTSD symptoms.

Conclusions

The results suggest that: (1) complex traumas are implicated in attachment orientations and PTSD symptoms even many years after captivity; (2) there is an increase in attachment insecurities (anxiety, avoidance) and an increase in PTSD symptoms decades after the captivity; (3) and post-traumatic stress symptoms predict attachment orientations better than attachment orientations predict an increase in PTSD symptoms.

Keywords

Attachmentcomplex traumapost-traumatic symptomsPOWs
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 38 , Issue 10 , October 2008 , pp. 1427 - 1434
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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