Quality of Life in War Veterans Suffering from Chronic PTSD in Comparison with Other Veterans

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is a psychiatric disorder in which the symptoms of re-experiencing، avoidance and hyper-arousal have negative impact on physical and mental health of patients. The aim of the present study was to compare the quality of life of veterans suffering from war-related chronic PTSD and those not affected by PTSD. Therefore، in a causal-comparative study، 120 soldiers in four groups of PTSD، chemical، amputation and normal soldiers were selected through convenience sampling and the demographic characteristics and Quality of Life questionnaires were administered on them. Analysis of the variance and Tukey test showed that patients with PTSD scored lower in the components of vitality، social and physical functioning، and mental health as compared to the other groups. It seems that PTSD causes significant disabilities in job performance، family، sociability and daily functioning and negatively affects the quality of life of the patients.