Post-traumatic stress symptoms among UN-soldiers and relief workers

Objective: The article describes post trauma reactions among two groups of war exposed individuals. Degree of association with violent trauma is evaluated. Methods: UN-soldiers and relief workers were assessed on trauma exposure, posttraumatic symptomatology and general psychopathology (relief workers only). Results: Only 2.8 to 7.8% of the participants scored above cutoff on PTSD-related symptomatology (PTSS, IES-avoidance and IES-intrusion), with one exception: On the IES-intrusion scale 20.8% of the UN-soldiers were above cutoff. Among relief workers violence directed against others was consistently associated with psychopathology, both general and trauma related, while violence directed against the self was not related to any kind of psychopathology. Among UN-soldiers these relations were not consistent. Conclusions: Differences in degree of trauma exposure cannot explain the results, and are thus indicative of underlying differences between the two groups along dimensions that determine trauma perception, personality or coping strategies. Further research is needed in order to establish such underlying differences.