Mental Health In The Aftermath Of Conflict

Abstract

We survey the recent literature on the mental health effects of conflict. We highlight the methodological challenges faced in this literature, which include the lack of validated mental health scales in a survey context, the difficulties in measuring individual exposure to conflict, and the issues related to making causal inferences from observed correlations. We illustrate how some of these issues can be overcome in a study of mental health in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mental health is measured using a clinically validated scale; conflict exposure is proxied by administrative data on war casualties instead of being self-reported. We find that there are no significant differences in overall mental health across areas which are affected by ethnic conflict to a greater or lesser degree.

Early life shocks and mental health: The long-term effect of war in Vietnam

“…For example,Kessler et al (2008) estimate total societal cost of mental illness in the United States to be $193.2 billion per year during the period 2001-2003.2 For example, studies have examined the effects of contemporaneous changes in socio-economic conditions such as exposure to financial crisis(Friedman and Thomas, 2009); labor market conditions(Marcus, 2013); access to social protection(Baird et al, 2013); and changes in migration policies(Venkataramani et al, 2017). With relation to conflict, studies find that participation in (or exposure to) conflict during adulthood may have adverse affects on mental health(Do and Iyer, 2012;Brattia et al, 2016;Moya, 2018).…”

Climate Change, Conflict, and Children

“…However, some researchers have overcome those obstacles. A study of the 1992-95 conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina used a clinically validated scale of mental health and war exposure based on administrative data on war casualties (Do and Iyer, 2009). Surprisingly, the study found no significant differences in adult mental health among people who had experienced different levels of exposure to the conflict.…”

Long-lasting consequences of war on disability

“…Given that millions of people died during the war and in the four decades since, our findings are surprising and appear to reflect what may have in earlier years been higher rates of disability in heavily bombed areas. In addition, our disability measure is unable to capture a range of mental health conditions commonly associated with warfare exposure, such as depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (Do & Iyer, 2012). We offer a partial and long-term estimate of the effect of war on health for the entire population of Vietnam, which is new in the literature.…”