Quality of life of civilian persons with adaptation disorders who have experienced psycho-social stress under the conditions of military conflict

Abstract

The objective: to conduct a comparative analysis of the quality of life of civilians who have experienced psychosocial stress in a military conflict, and justify the differentiation of therapeutic approaches in providing specialized medical care. Materials and methods. Clinical, psychopathological and psychodiagnostic methods were used. Three groups were formed. They included 109 persons experienced psychosocial stress during military conflict. The first group (G1) consisted of fallen servicemen wives (n=6); group 2 (G2) included mothers, fathers and wives of unaffected combatants who returned to peaceful life (n=71); 32 internally displaced persons (12 men and 20 women) were included to group 3 (G3). The survey was conducted in accordance with the principles of bioethics and deontology. Results. All the persons were diagnosed with mental disorders of the F43.2 cluster - adaptive disorders. It has been revealed that the lowest scores in most spheres of life, both individual and integrated, had IDPs. Low scores of IDPs may show both a conscious and an unconscious desire to draw attention to their psychological and social problems, as this group is the least socially protected and receives the least social support from the state. The attitude of society to this group is also ambiguous, in contrast to the attitude to combatants and their family’s members. This can have a significant impact on the self-esteem of QLI primarily related to social functioning. QLI in all areas did not differ significantly between relatives of the fallen and  relatives of unaffected combatants, which gives grounds to consider them as the same in QLI characteristics. The ratio of QLI in different areas in these groups was different, which indicates the complexity and multifactorial impact of different factors on the assessment of QLI in combatants’ relatives and IDPs. The features identified should be taken into account when developing treatment-and-rehabilitation and preventive measures for these contingents.