Phenomenology of disorders specifically associated with war-related stress in combatants

Abstract

In press

The study aimed to explore the phenomenology of war-related stress disorders in combatants undergoing inpatient treatment in different hospital departments. A total of 242 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen aged 25–45 years were examined at the Sumy Regional Clinical Veterans’ Hospital. The participants were divided into three groups according to the profile of the department: internal medicine (Group I, n=86), neurology (Group II, n=110), and surgery (Group III, n=46). Structured clinical interviews were performed; data processing involved descriptive and correlational analysis (SPSS 29.0.2). Across all groups, the most prevalent symptoms included sleep disturbances, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, low mood, cognitive difficulties, and tension. The internal medicine group demonstrated the most integrated symptom structure, with strong correlations between anxiety, insomnia, avoidance behavior, and flashback reactions, reflecting a chronic psychosomatic symptom complex. In the neurology group, symptoms were less interrelated but showed strong connections between depressive mood, loss of interest, cognitive impairments, and emotional withdrawal, likely shaped by neurocognitive and organic factors. In the surgical group, high correlations were found between avoidance of trauma-related memories, intrusive recollections, irritability, and hyperarousal, indicating acute psychological stress responses. Notably, suicidal ideation in all groups exhibited weak correlations with other psychopathological features, highlighting its clinical autonomy and the need for dedicated suicide risk assessment regardless of the general symptom profile. These findings underscore the importance of department-specific, differentiated psychological support protocols tailored to the clinical characteristics of war trauma survivors, with an emphasis on scree­ning for suicidal risk as a separate diagnostic target.

Keywords: military personnel, psychopathological symptoms, combat trauma.