Psychiatric patients in war: A study of anxiety, distress and world assumptions

The present study aimed to study the implication of war stress in emotional and cognitive response of psychiatric patients. Thirty-nine Israeli hospit alized schizophrenics and 39 comparable controls were assessed during the 1 991 Gulf War. Subjects filled out questionnaires evaluating anxiety, war-re lated symptomatology, and world assumptions. Results revealed that while ps ychiatric patients reported significantly higher levels of trait anxiety th an controls, the two groups did not differ in war-related distress, Moreove r, on most indices, hospitalized schizophrenics held more positive world as sumptions than controls. Theoretical issues are discussed.