Impact of psychological problems in chemical warfare survivors with severe ophthalmologic complication, a cross sectional study

Health and Quality of Life Outcomes

Mohammad Mehdi Naghizadeh⁴  Maryam Sadeghi Naeeni⁸  Siamak Afshin-Majd⁵  Farhad Jafari⁹  Parvin Rahnama¹  Mohammad Reza Soroush⁷  Batool Mousavi³  Hassan Ghasemi⁶  Gholamhosein Ghaedi² 

[1] Assistant professor, department of midwifery, faculty of nursing and midwifery, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran;Assistant professor of psychiatry, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran;Prevention department, Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC), Tehran, Iran;Department of Community Medicine, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran;Associate professor of neurology, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran;Associate professor of ophthalmology, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran;MD. Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC), Tehran, Iran;General practitioners, MD, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran;Assistant professor of social medicine, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

关键词: War veterans;    Ocular complication;    Psychological status;    Sulfur mustard;   

Others  :  825766
DOI  :  10.1186/1477-7525-10-36

 received in 2011-11-22, accepted in 2012-04-12,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Sulfur mustard (SM) has been used as a chemical warfare agent since the early twentieth century. Despite the large number of studies that have investigated SM induced ocular injuries, few of those studies have also focused on the psychological health status of victims. This study has evaluated the most prominent influences on the psychological health status of patients with severe SM induced ocular injuries.

Methods

This descriptive study was conducted on 149 Iranian war veterans with severe SM induced eye injuries. The psychological health status of all patients was assessed using the Iranian standardized Symptom Check List 90-Revised (SCL90-R) questionnaire. The results of patients' Global Severity Index (GSI) were compared with the optimal cut-off point of 0.4 that has previously been calculated for GSI in Iranian community. The Mann-Whitney U test, T tests and effect sizes (using Cohen's d) were employed as statistical methods. Data were analyzed using SPSS software.

Results

The mean age of patients was 44.86 (SD = 8.7) and mean duration of disease was 21.58 (SD = 1.20) years. Rate of exposure was once in 99 (66.4%) cases. The mean GSI (1.46) of the study group was higher compared to standardized cut off point (0.4) of the Iranian community. The results of this study showed that the mean of total GSI score was higher in participants with lower educational levels (effect size = 0.507), unemployment (effect size = 0.464) and having more than 3 children (effect size = 0.62). Among the participants, 87 (58.4%) cases had a positive psychological history for hospitalization or receiving outpatient cares previously and 62 (41.6%) cases had a negative psychological history. In addition, the mean of GSI in participants with negative psychological history was lower than those with positive psychological history (Mean Change Difference = -0.621 with SD = 0.120). There was a significant difference between positive and negative psychological history with respect to GSI (P < 0.001).

Conclusion

The study showed that severe ophthalmologic complications in chemical survivors are accompanied with destructive effects on psychological health status. Appropriate management may improve psychological health status in these patients.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Ghaedi et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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