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Clinical psychiatric illness in prisoners of war of the Japanese: forty years after release

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Christopher Tennant*
Affiliation:
Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Kerry Goulston
Affiliation:
Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Owen Dent
Affiliation:
Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor C. Tennant, Professorial Psychiatric Unit, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia

Synopsis

Clinical psychiatric and medical assessments were carried out on a randomly selected sample of Australian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in 1942 and a sample of combatants from Pacific theatres of war who were not captured. Prisoners of war had significantly more anxiety and depressive ‘neuroses’ and more major affective illness, although the latter finding was not statistically significant. The two groups did not differ in the risk of alcohol abuse and dependence.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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