Citation

Weine SM, Becker DF, Vojvoda D, Hodzic E, Sawyer M, Hyman L, Laub D, McGlashan TH. J. Trauma. Stress 1998; 11(1): 147-153.

Affiliation

UIC Psychiatric Institute, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1023/A:1024469418811

PMID

9479683

Abstract

The authors used the SCID-DES (disorders of extreme stress) instrument to assess for personality change in Bosnian survivors of "ethnic cleansing." Twenty four refugees underwent systematic, trauma-focused, research assessments, including the SCID-DES interview. Overall, this group of Bosnian survivors had been severely traumatized as a result of the Serbian nationalists' genocide. However, no subject met diagnostic criteria for DES. The SCID-DES yields far lower rates of trauma-related personality change in Bosnian survivors of genocide than in adult survivors of prolonged early life traumas. Therefore, the DES construct may have better application to prolonged, interpersonal, early life traumas than to the prolonged, communal traumas of genocide.

Language: en