Symptom prevalence of PTSD, anxiety, depression, effect of exposure and mediating factors on a population from southern Lebanon

Abstract

The Israeli occupation of the South of Lebanon has affected the mental and physical health of the people living in the region. The current research aimed at studying the exposure to war related traumatic events, establishing the prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and level of General Psychiatric Morbidity, as well as looking at some predictor variables for PTSD among the general population. The sample consisted of 256 randomly selected participants in two adjacent towns. The instruments used were the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). The majority of the respondents had experienced one or more war-related traumatic events. The overall prevalence of PTSD was found to be 29.3%; among females the prevalence was 36.6% and among males 20.9%. The level of general psychiatric morbidity was high compared to studies in other countries. Both PTSD and psychiatric morbidity correlated highly with PTSD and general psychiatric morbidity. The main predictor for PTSD was the degree of exposure to traumatic events.