Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Moral Injury Among Ukrainian Civilians During the Ongoing War

While severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and moral injury among civilians affected by armed conflicts is generally understudied, even less research exists on civilian populations during an active war. This paper reports a large-scale study that administered standard assessments of PTSD and moral injury severity, as well as rich demographic questionnaires, to nearly 1300 Ukrainian civilians during the ongoing Russian invasion. Analyses revealed an extremely high prevalence of severe PTSD symptoms and moral injury, relative to both proposed clinical cut-offs and to earlier measurements from a similar population. Further regression analyses identified risk factors and protective factors. Greater severity of PTSD symptoms was observed among women, older and forcibly displaced individuals, and individuals from geographic regions under Russian occupation. Higher education correlated with milder PTSD symptoms. Moral injury was particularly strong in younger individuals. The present study is one of the first to report a large scale set of psychological data collected from the civilian population of Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion. It is obvious from the scope and long-term nature of the atrocities that psychological treatment of the civilian population will be required both presently, while the hostilities are ongoing, and in the future. This data contributes to a detailed understanding of the psychological response to traumatic stress, including its overall prevalence and presence in specific demographically and geographically defined civilian groups.