Issue 3/4 Vol. 34 1992

Affective reactions of patients and personnel during air-raid alerts in the Ugljan Psychiatric Hospital

ZAMPERA, E., KONDIC, L., MAVAR, M.

During general and air-raid warnings it was noticed that the reactions of certain categories of patients and personnel in the Psychiatric Hospital Ugljan differed in relation to the psychodynamic structure of the group. The aim of this investigation was determine the level of anxiety in the reactions of these categories of people in the fore-mentioned stressful situations. The levels of state and trait anxiety were assessed using the STAI (X-1, X-2) questionnaire during the period when there was no alarm. Two days later, an air-raid alarm was sounded because of an approaching enemy aircraft, and the state of anxiety ( X-1 ) was assessed again (self-assessment, assessment by observers) this time in the air-raid shelter. This investigation confirmed some differences in affective reactions of certain groups to the same entities. It was found that alcoholic patients and the personnel showed a significant increase in anxiety during the alarm, while this was not noticed in schizophrenic patients.

Keywords: stress situations, anxiety, psychiatry in war, war

Short Title: Zampera, E. et al. (1992) PsyBeit 3-4:343

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