Quality of life in veterans suffering from chronic posttraumatic stress disorder

To assess possible differences in quality of life assessment between the group of veterans with combat experience who meet the criteria for the diagnosis of chronic PTSD and the group of veterans with combat experience who do not meet the criteria for the diagnosis of chronic PTSD. To compare and analyze possible differences between the two groups in socio-demographic characteristics.

The subjects were 100 adult men, veterans with combat exposure who met the inclusion criteria for the study and who agreed to sign the informed consent for the participations in this study. The subjects were divided in two groups (experimental group and control group), each comprising of 50 subjects. Experimental group consisted of 50 adult men, age 40-50, veterans with combat exposure who meet the criteria for the diagnosis of chronic PTSD according to ICD-10. Control group consisted of 50 adult men, age 40-50, veterans with combat exposure who do not meet the criteria for the diagnosis of chronic PTSD according to ICD-10. The subjects were assessed with the use of the following standardized psychometric instruments: MMSE, MINI, IES-90 R, MANSA; Life Stressor List and a socio-demographic questionnaire.

In subjects with PTSD, assessed satisfaction with all components of the quality of life is significantly lower than in the subjects from the non-PTSD group. Yet, the scores of assessment of satisfaction with family life, although lower than in the non-PTSD group, were relatively high in the PTSD group (4.76 +/- 1.3).

The results indicate the importance of factors of both PTSD diagnosis and the posttraumatic environment on the subjective perception of the quality of life for the subjects in this study.