War stress and civilian Vietnamese

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Abstract
Psychological disturbance, measured by Macmillan''s Health Opinion Survey, was assessed among 102 evacuees from a battlefront in South Vietnam. The amount of stress experienced was estimated by means of Cantril''s Self-Anchoring Scale as well as by indicators of economic disadvantage associated with herbicide spraying and of family break-up by military service and casualties. Compared with other groups in Vietnam and elsewhere, the evacuees displayed a higher level of emotional disturbance than any group to whom they can be compared except for a sample of Vietnamese prisoners of war. The levels of disturbance exhibited by the evacuees were correlated with indicators of various kinds and combinations of war stress. Women who were bereft of a husband or son and who experienced economic reverses were apparently especially vulnerable. The psychological response most characteristic of the evacuated men and women had features similar to clinical depression, and it was not short-lived or transient.

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