Studies on war traumatization in Bosnia Stress in check details children whose father is missing, separated from them, or dead Children from war areas who are displaced or obliged to seek asylum in foreign countries have to cope with multiple traumatic experiences, one of the most serious being the loss of a father, who has either been killed or is missing. We

carried out a study in the canton of Sarajevo on 816 children and early adolescents (age 10-15 years). The main goal of the study was to look at the psychological effects of traumatic experiences caused by the loss of a father as Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical a consequence of the war.9 This study evaluated the number of traumatic experiences during the war and in the postwar period, and measured depressive symptoms using Birleson’s Depression Self-Rating Scale for children (DSRS).10 Four groups of children were defined as follows: Missing fathers: Children who lost contact Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with their father during the war and had still not received any information about his fate at the time of the study (n=201; 106 boys, 95 girls) . Separation: Children who were separated from their father during the war, but could be reunited with him after the war (n=204; 104 boys, 100 girls). Kitted fathers:

Children whose fathers were killed during the war; the children had full knowledge Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of the fact and circumstances (n=208; 105 boys, 103 girls). Controls: Children not having lost or been separated from their father; ail other factors were the same as in the other groups (n=203; 99 boys, 104 girls). Table I shows the average number of traumatic experiences other than the loss of a father. The fact the number of such experiences was significantly higher in the group with fathers missing is worthy of note. table I War-related Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical traumatic experience (WRTE) and postwar-related stress (PWRS) in children. A potential confounding factor with respect to depressive symptoms was the possibility that a child’s lack of information about a close relative could be a consequence of the chaotic

circumstances brought about by “ethnic cleansing,” the latter being in itself associated Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with higher trauma scores. An analysis of covariance was therefore performed in order to correct for the confounding effect of this ccwariate on the variable “depression.” The main depression scores, adjusted for covariates, are shown in Table II. The differences among the groups were highly significant, and, again, Sodium butyrate the highest depression scores were found in the children with a missing father, with almost as high scores in children whose father had been killed. These results highlight the cognitive processes that are triggered in children who lose a parent through acts of violence or who are left with no information concerning the fate of their father, and that uncertainty with respect to family members was the strongest factor in childhood depression.