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Emotional distress and satisfaction in life among Holocaust survivors – a community study of survivors and controls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

D. Carmil*
Affiliation:
Ray D. Wolfe Centre for Study of Psychological Stress, University of Haifa, MOR Institute for Medical Data and the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
R. S. Carel
Affiliation:
Ray D. Wolfe Centre for Study of Psychological Stress, University of Haifa, MOR Institute for Medical Data and the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr D. Carmil, Ray D. Wolfe Centre for Study of Psychological Stress, University of Haifa, Mt Carmel, Haifa, Israel.

Synopsis

Results are reported from a large population study (of working people) comparing Holocaust survivors and a control group in regard to emotional distress, satisfaction in life and psychosomatic symptoms. It was found that, even 40 years after the traumatic experience, this group of survivors exhibited a slightly higher degree of emotional disorders than controls who were not under Nazi occupation during WWII. These long-term effects were usually more prominent in women than in men, and the relationship to age was minimal.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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