To determine the association of religious moral beliefs and depression severity of war veterans in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The sample consists of 65 male war veterans inpatients with clinically presented depression and 65 controls who were observed as healthy regarding results of previous psychological testing. Were applied the Bosnia-Herzegovina versions of Hopkins Symptom Checklist, Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and Religious moral beliefs questionnaire.

Depressed war veterans were older (mean±standard deviation=44.5 ± 7.3) years than not depressed (37.4 ± 3.4) (F = 50.651, P < 0.001, ANOVA). the trauma experiences' mean score of war veterans was (mean±standard deviation) 32.6 ± 12.5 with significant statistical differences between depressed (36.8 ± 13.4) and not depressed war veterans (28.4 ± 10.1) (F = 16.715, P < 0.001, ANOVA). Among depressed war veterans Index of Religious Moral Beliefs (IRMB) was significantly lower 40.1 ± 5.2 than among not depressed war veterans (42.0 ± 4.0) (F = 4.354, P = 0.039, ANOVA). in this sample of war veterans, we found that the IRMG was inversely correlated to age (Pearson's “r” = −0.193, P = 0.043), trauma experiences severity (Pearson's “r” = -0.234, P = 0.014) and depression severity (Pearson's “r” = -0.242, P = 0.011). Trauma experiences severity and depression severity positively correlated to age of war veterans (Pearson's “r” = 0.243, P = 0.005; Pearson's “r” = 0.562, P < 0.001, respectively). Depression severity positively correlated to trauma experiences severity of subjects in this study. Subjects with higher moral belief index were younger, reported significantly less trauma experiences severity and expressed significantly less depressive tendencies.

The religious moral beliefs may help protection of the war veterans’ mental health stability after surviving multiple war traumas.