Citation

Kaplan Z, Matar MA, Kamin R, Sadan T, Cohen H. J. Clin. Psychiatry 2005; 66(9): 1146-1154.

Affiliation

Ministry of Health Mental Health Center, Anxiety and Stress Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Comment In:

J Clin Psychiatry. 2006 Jul;67(7):1156; author reply 1156-7

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Physicians Postgraduate Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16187773

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The inhabitants of 3 different types of population centers in Israel were assessed as to stress-related symptomatology during 2003 and 2004. These centers have been exposed to 2 distinct forms of violence-sporadic, large-scale terror attacks in the metropolitan areas in the heart of Israel and daily "war-zone" conditions in the settlements beyond the 1967 borders of Israel. METHOD: A semistructured interview and questionnaire survey of a random sample of 314 inhabitants of a suburb of Tel-Aviv, a settlement in the West Bank (Kiryat-Arba), and the Gush-Katif settlement cluster in the Gaza Strip was performed. Symptoms of acute stress and chronic (posttraumatic) stress as well as symptoms of general psychopathology and distress were assessed. RESULTS: The inhabitants of Gush-Katif, in spite of firsthand daily exposure to violent attacks, reported the fewest and least severe symptoms of stress-related complaints, the least sense of personal threat, and the highest level of functioning of all 3 samples. The most severely symptomatic and functionally compromised were the inhabitants of the Tel-Aviv suburb, who were the least frequently and least directly affected by exposure to violent attacks. Because the Gush-Katif population is exclusively religious, the data were reassessed according to religiousness. The religious inhabitants of Kiryat-Arba had almost the same symptom profile as the Gush-Katif population, whereas secular inhabitants of Kiryat-Arba reported faring worse than did either population in the Tel-Aviv suburb. CONCLUSION: Deeply held belief systems affecting life-views may impart significant resilience to developing stress-related problems, even under extreme conditions. Religiousness combined with common ideological convictions and social cohesion was associated with substantial resilience as compared to a secular metropolitan urban population.

Language: en