[ALBSA-Info] Kosovo conflict leaves legacy of mental health problems: study (AFP, 01-Aug-2000)

[Uk Lushi]

>Kosovo conflict leaves legacy of mental health problems: study
>
>Tuesday, 01-Aug-2000  1:00PM
>
>CHICAGO, Aug 1 (AFP) - The Kosovo conflict took a heavy mental toll of
>many Kosovar Albanians, leaving them with mental health problems and
>even post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a study released
>Tuesday.
>      Researchers who surveyed 1,358 Kosovar Albanians reported that 43
>percent showed signs of psychiatric illness, according to the study in
>the Journal of the American Medical Association.
>      A quarter of those interviewed said they had had friends or family
>murdered, or had witnessed the murder of a stranger, while two thirds
>had found themselves in a combat situation, close to death, or deprived
>of food and water, the study said.
>      About 17 percent displayed the symptoms of post-traumatic stress
>disorder -- a reaction to a psychologically traumatic event which can
>include insomnia, nightmares, and hypervigilance.
>      The elderly, those aged 65 or more, and those Kosovar Albanians who
>had not managed to flee the region during the conflict and had been
>persecuted by Serbian troops, were the most likely to have succumbed to
>some form of mental illness, the authors of the study wrote.
>      "The high rates of poor mental health status among those internally
>displaced and refugees who have returned to Kosovo also raises concern
>for the mental health of those who remain in countries of asylum and
>resettlement," wrote the authors.
>      More than 800,000 people fled the predominantly ethnic-Albanian
>province of Kosovo and sought refuge in Albania, Montenegro and
>Macedonia during the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict.
>      By the time NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) began its
>bombing campaign against Serbia on March 24, 1999, about 260,000 people
>had fled their homes and were on the move in the region, the study said.
>      The survey of Albanians aged 15 and over was conducted between
>August and October 1999, by the Centers for Disease Control and
>Prevention in Atlanta, and the Institute for Mental Health Recovery in
>Pristina, Kosovo.
>
>Story from AFP   Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse  (via ClariNet)

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