Influence of traumatizing factors during captivity on somatic and psychiatric morbidity in former prisoners of war
Donnay, J.M.; Dethienne, F.; Meyers, C.
Acta Psychiatrica Belgica 75(1): 33-48
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0300-8967 PMID: 1232761 Document Number: 90867
This study tries to evidence the effect of past traumatic experiences of the present somatic and psychiatric morbidity of the former POW. One hundred POWs hospitalized at the Ste-Ode Center for former prisonners of war and political prisonners having spent five years in the German and Austrian camps were submitted to a semi-structured interview. The number of traumatic experiences spontaneously reported has been compared with the present score on the Cornell Index form N2. The results show a relation between both data: a former POW who had undergone a minimum number of traumas significantly appears to be anxious, asthenic, nervous, with a predisposition to depression and psychosomatic disorders.