Chapter 32 - Mental health and illness outcomes in civilian populations exposed to armed conflict and war

Summary

This chapter reviews both short- and long-term consequences of protracted violence, endemic conflict, and war on civilian populations and their relationships. It discusses specific mental health outcomes of war and violence in civilian populations. The chapter also focuses on psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a trauma construct and its changes over time, including issues pertaining to the heterogeneity and universality of the disorder. It critically examines the relation of causality between exposure to traumatic events and psychological trauma, and the limited explanatory power of the linear model of trauma in which exposure to traumatic events invariably leads to PTSD as a single outcome. Finally, the chapter discusses the many limitations of the PTSD model, arguing that mental illness is not the single consequence of trauma, but closely associated with social inequalities, gender disparities, poor nutrition, and overall poor physical health.