HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS HOSPITALIZED FOR LIFE - THE ISRAELI EXPERIENCE

The Holocaust was the most traumatic experience to occur in the 20th c entury The present study aims to assess elderly Holocaust survivors in a long-stay psychiatric setting. Data concerning hospitalized survivo rs were gathered from medical records, repeated interviews (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III [SCID]) with patients, and family inte rviews. Subjects were all inpatients at Israel's largest psychiatric h ospital, Abarbanel Mental Health Center. Patients hospitalized in the same setting who did not undergo the Holocaust were the comparison gro up. Of the center's 670 beds, 74 (11%) are designated for psychogeriat ric patients. Forty-four (59.5%) patients in the psychogeriatric secti on are Holocaust survivors. There were 41 women and three men in our s eries. Mean age of the group was 76.2 years (range, 54 to 92). The mos t frequent diagnosis was schizophrenia (22 of 44). Nearly 30% had been hospitalized chronically since the Holocaust. Mean current hospitaliz ation time was 11.2 years (range, 1 to 45). The frequent diagnosis in the comparison group was also schizophrenia (20 of 30), but indexes of chronicity were more favorable. The severity and the chronic, deterio rating course of illness in this subgroup of survivors may be due to t he massive life-long psychologic disintegration imposed by the Holocau st. Copyright (C) 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company.