Aims. To analyze the differences in psychological reactions to war stressors between the younger and older displaced persons. Methods. The subjects were 239 younger (aged 20 to 49 years), and 103 older (aged 60 to 88 years) displaced persons, temporarily accommodated in northern Croatia (Zagreb, Velika Gorica, Varazdinske Toplice and Cakovec). The data were compiled according to the Scale of Recent Life Events, containing 14 war-related events, and according to the Scale of Symptoms of Psychosomatic Disorders, containing 18 symptoms which correspond to the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder. Results. All the subjects experienced several traumatic events (mean±S.D. 4.17±2.38), and the younger repeated significantly more such events than the older subjects. The quality of the events and frequency of single psychosomatic symptoms and disorders were significantly higher in the older subjects. Conclusion. Psychosomatic symptoms and disorders resulting from stressful experiences, threaten particularly older displaced persons, thus making them a group at high risk.

Stress life events War Aged persons Psychological

male female war major clinical study stress Aged psychosomatic disorder Yugoslavia symptom Article human adult life event posttraumatic stress disorder