title: Time does not heal all wounds: quality of life and psychological distress of people who survived the holocaust as children 55 years later.
abstract: The present study assessed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, psychological distress, and subjective quality of life (QoL) in a group of 43 child Holocaust survivors and a community sample of 44 persons who had not personally experienced the Holocaust. The participants were administered the PTSD-Scale, the SCL-90, and the WHOQOL-Bref. Results showed that the child survivors had higher PTSD symptom scores, higher depression, anxiety, somatization, and anger-hostility scores; and lower physical, psychological, and social QoL than did the comparison group. The findings suggest that the psychological consequences of being a child during the Holocaust can be long lasting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. mamir@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amir
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lev-Wiesel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017767:Holocaust / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D013997:Time Factors