Issue 3/4 Vol. 34 1992

Mental disorders in Croatian soldiers in outpatient treatment at East-Slavonian battlefield

FILAKOVIC, P., BARKIC, J., MANDIC, N.

Osijek was almost completely surrounded by the Serbian army for more than eight months and its edge areas were both the defence lines of Croatia and the city itself. Working in the outpatient department for Croatian soldiers the authors have come across many expected and unexpected difficulties, starting from the doubt about the place of giving psychological and psychiatric help, the question of concordance with the war psychiatry doctrine, to the problem of a large number of soldiers who had mental disorders before, as well as during the war. This problem resulted in a looser therapeutic approach to these groups of patients.

Analyzing the sample of 518 Croatian soldiers in outpatient treatment the authors concluded that a large number of nuclear neurosis decompensation and other "classic" psychiatric diagnoses are the results of an inadequate psychological and psychiatric selection at the beginning of the war. They recommend repeated selection as soon as possible, as well as intensive preventive activities in protection of mental health in Croatian Army formations.

Keywords: psychiatry in war, war, soldiers

Short Title: Filakovic, P. et al. (1992) PsyBeit 3-4:250

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