Australian prisoners of war of the Japanese: post-war psychiatric hospitalisation and psychological morbidity.
Evidence of chronic psychiatric and psychosomatic morbidity was found in a randomly selected sample of Australian prisoners of war (POWs) of the Japanese over the 40-year period following the Second World War. A clinical interview revealed more contemporary depressive and anxiety disorders and more post-war psychiatric illness overall than in a comparison group of randomly selected combatant veterans of the Pacific and South East Asian campaign. The POWs were no more likely to have had psychiatric admissions than non-POWs and fewer of them had had multiple psychiatric admissions. POWs had more duodenal ulcers than controls but otherwise their physical health was similar, as was their age-adjusted mortality in the post-war years. Finally, POWs were more likely to have Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Service Pensions than controls.
Tennant
C
C
Goulston
K
K
Dent
O
O
D000368:Aged; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D001315:Australia; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000453:epidemiology; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology*; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology; D014857:Warfare