Depression and general anxiety in the prisoner of war's children: a cross sectional study

The main aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of depression and general anxiety of the prisoners of war (POW) children. The study was also designed to compare the prevalence of depression and general anxiety amongst the POW's children and normal adults, 20 years after the Iraq-Iran war.

An analytic cross-sectional study carried out in June 2009 in Yazd (the centre of Yazd province in Iran). The target and sampled population were the children of the Iranian POW who lived in Yazd. One hundred and twenty six POW's children, who were born before 1990 (date of father's freedom) were assessed. The duration of father's captivation was between 29-119 months. Ninety-five subjects accepted to participate. General anxiety and major depression were assessed by Persian version of Hamilton Scale for anxiety and Beck depression Inventory. This study was a combination of the psychological interview and questionnaire. Ninety five of normal adult group were also paired matched and assessed.

Among 126 POW's children who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, the responsive rate was 75.3% (95 participants). The mean age of participants was 28.3 (SD: 5.34).The father's captivation duration were 29-119 months (mean: 79.2, SD: 21.6). The prevalence of depression and general anxiety amongst the POW's children were 48.4% and 79%. The prevalence of depression and general anxiety among the paired group were 21.1% and 63.2%.The differences between two groups were significant (p =0.000).

In this study we have demonstrated the prevalence of major depression and general anxiety in POW's children and a normal adult sample. The differences of major depression and general anxiety among the two groups were significant.