P01-131 - Quality of Life in Bosnian Army Veterans Suffering from Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Objectives

Assess possible differences in quality of life assessment between the group of veterans who meet the criteria for the diagnosis of chronic PTSD and the group of veterans who do not meet the criteria for the diagnosis of chronic PTSD. Compare and analyze possible differences between the two groups in socio-demographic characteristics.

Subjects and methods

The subjects were 100 adult men, veterans with combat exposure who met the inclusion criteria for the study and agreed to sign the informed consent. The subjects were divided in two groups, each comprising of 50 subjects. Experimental group consisted of 50 veterans with combat exposure who meet the criteria for the diagnosis of chronic PTSD according to ICD-10. Control group consisted of 50 veterans with combat exposure who do not meet the criteria for the diagnosis of chronic PTSD. The subjects were assessed with the following standardized psychometric instruments: MMSE, MINI, IES-90 R, MANSA; Life Stressor List and a socio-demographic questionnaire:

Results

The subjects with PTSD assessed satisfaction with all components of the quality of life significantly lower than the subjects from the non-PTSD group. Yet, the scores assessing the satisfaction with family life, although lower than in the non-PTSD group, were relatively high in the PTSD group (4,76 ± 1,3).

Conclusions

The results indicate the importance of factors of both PTSD diagnosis and the posttraumatic environment on the subjective perception of the quality of life for the subjects in this study.