Effects of Chemical Warfare Throughout Time on Mental Disorder Symptoms and Brain Executive Functions of Veterans Exposed to Chemical Weapons

Abstract

Background: During the Iran-Iraq war (1980 - 1988), Iran was subjected to chemical attacks for over five years. These attacks left many mental injuries, especially for the veterans exposed to chemical weapons. Objectives: This case-control study compared mental disorder symptoms and brain executive functions of veterans exposed to chemical weapons with healthy individuals. Methods: The present study was conducted on veterans exposed to chemical weapons during the war. The control group comprised healthy individuals matched to the cases based on age, gender, occupation, level of education, and place of residence. One hundred seventy participants were included in the study, with 85 individuals in each group. The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) and Nejati questionnaire were used to collect data on the symptoms of mental disorders and brain executive functions. Multivariate analysis of variance was used for data analysis. Results: The findings revealed that the total effect of the subscales of mental disorders in all nine domains was significantly higher in veterans exposed to chemical weapons than in healthy individuals (P < 0.05). In addition, the actual impact of the subscales of the executive brain functions of veterans exposed to chemical weapons was significantly lower compared to healthy individuals (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings showed that veterans exposed to chemical weapons exhibited higher mental disorder symptoms across all domains than the control group. Moreover, veterans demonstrated weaker cognitive functions in terms of executive brain functions compared to healthy individuals. The implications of these findings are significant for mental health specialists working with veterans exposed to chemical weapons.