Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a Serbian Community

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may develop as a serious long-term consequence of traumatic experiences, even many years after trauma exposure. The objectives of this study were to examine the prevalence of lifetime and current PTSD as well as to detect the most stressful life events and sociodemographic risk factors of PTSD in a general adult Serbian population. The sample consisted of 640 subjects chosen by random walk technique in five regions of the country. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview 5 revealed an 18.8% prevalence rate of current PTSD and a 32.3% prevalence rate of lifetime PTSD. According to the Life Stressor Checklist-Revised, the bombardment, being expelled from home, siege, and participation in combat were the stressful events most likely to be associated with PTSD. The prevalence of PTSD increased among widows and widowers, divorced persons, unemployed persons, and retired persons. The high level of PTSD a few years after the trauma exposure classifies as a significant health problem that can cause serious consequences for families and the community as a whole.

Prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and associated factors among Koshe landslide survivors, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a community-based, cross-sectional study

“…On the other hand, our estimations are higher than findings in other countries, for example, 11.8% in northern Uganda, 18.8% in Serbia, 29.3% in Southern Lebanon and 9.1% in sothern Brazil 35–38. The possible reason for this variation might be difference in instruments.…”

Post-Traumatic Outcomes among Survivors of the Earthquake in Central Italy of August 24, 2016. A Study on PTSD Risk and Vulnerability Factors

“…Despite marital status, age and delocalization were considered vulnerability Fig. 4 Impact of PTSD (according to the HTQ cut-off) among the recruitment sites variable [11,17,56,59], our study does not provided evidence in this regard. The presence of PTSD was small among the survivors with higher education levels.…”

“…Individuals who have underwent multiple movements are more at risk of PTSD developing [11]. Furthermore, the effect of socio-demographic variables such as gender, age, education, marital status, and occupation was explored [15][16][17][18]. The PTSD incidence in women was of 34.82% against the 22.57% for men [5].…”

Mental health of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants: An overview of challenges and good practice examples

“…Prolonged grief in refugees exposed to trauma and loss has been reported in approximately 10% of bereaved individuals [37]. Bearing in mind protective and risk factors for PTSD [38], including sociodemographic characteristics [39,40], psychiatric comorbidity [38,41], number, severity and type of stressors [39], higher personal distress, low quality of life [39], it does not come as surprise that refugees, asylum seekers and migrants represent groups under increased risk for this syndrome. Therefore, researchers have shown that PTSD is ten times more likely in refugees and asylum seekers compared to host population [18,35,36], with registered prevalence of PTSD in refugees (9%) being higher than estimates for host country population (1-3%) [35,42].…”