In 1998, after 35 years of domestic political violence, the historic
Belfast Agreement was signed in Northern Ireland. In fact, a Northern Ireland
psychiatrist-turned-politician, John Alderdice, M.D., played a key role in
brokering the agreement (Psychiatric News, March 19, 2004).
The agreement led to a semblance of peace in Northern Ireland. Today,"
things still rumble occasionally, but generally we are in a very
optimistic period," Orla Muldoon, Ph.D., formerly of Queen's University
Belfast in Northern Ireland and now chair of psychology at the University of
Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, told Psychiatric News.
Unfortunately, though, the mental health fallout from the 35-year conflict
does not seem to be over, a study conducted by Muldoon and by Ciara Downes,
Ph.D., in clinical psychology training at Queen's University Belfast,
suggested. The study found that as many as 10 percent of people in Northern
Ireland and in counties of the Republic of Ireland bordering on Northern
Ireland may have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the
conflict.
In 2004 Muldoon and Downes conducted a telephone survey of 3,000
adults—2,000 in Northern Ireland and 1,000 in Republic of Ireland
counties bordering Northern Ireland—who were representative of the
general populations in these regions. They wanted to find out how many of the
survey respondents had experienced a distressing event as a result of"
the troubles," which is what people in Northern Ireland and the
Republic call the political conflict. Of the 3,000 individuals, 42 percent
reported having experienced such an event.
Those 42 percent were then evaluated during the phone survey with the PTSD
Checklist to determine whether they had probable PTSD. Ten percent of the
3,000 survey participants had symptoms severe enough to warrant a diagnosis of
PTSD, Muldoon and Downes reported in the August British Journal of
Psychiatry.
"We were surprised that the prevalence of PTSD appeared to be as high
as it was," Muldoon told Psychiatric News. "There has
been an attitude in Northern Ireland for a long time that it is just best to
keep going and that 'the troubles' are a background issue."
Nonetheless, that the prevalence was so high should probably not have
surprised them, she indicated, as it was about the same as that observed in
other countries with long-term political conflict, such as Israel and Sri
Lanka.
Other survey results offered insight into the types of individuals who
developed probable PTSD in the wake of "the troubles."
The survey findings also have implications for psychiatrists who treat
patients for PTSD stemming from long-term political conflict, Muldoon told
Psychiatric News. For example, PTSD developing in the wake of
long-term political conflict "does not conform to the DSM
definition of PTSD, as affected individuals are likely to have been
traumatized numerous times. They are also likely to have a poor
community-support network if the conflict was ideologically based. They may
even have been alienated from their own families and communities for failing
to embrace their traditional group allegiances."
The study was funded by the European Union Peace II Program and the United
Kingdom and Irish governments.
An abstract of "Social Identification and Post-Traumatic
Stress Symptoms in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland" is posted at<http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/191/2/146>.▪