Psychological responses in family members after the Hebron massacre

• Published in: Depression and anxiety Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 27 - 31
• Main Authors: Elbedour, Salman, Baker, Ahmad, Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera, Irwin, Martin, Belmaker, R.H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York John Wiley & Sons, Inc 1999
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adult; Arabs - psychology; Attitude to Death - ethnology; Bereavement; Child; Depression - epidemiology; Female; Humans; Islam - psychology; Israel - epidemiology; Life Change Events; Male; Muslim; Nuclear Family - psychology; PTSD; Religion and Psychology; Sex Factors; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - epidemiology; Survivors - psychology; traumatic bereavement; Violence - psychology; Violence - statistics & numerical data; Israel
• ISSN: 1091-4269; 1520-6394
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6394(1999)9:1<27::AID-DA4>3.0.CO;2-W

The authors attempted to determine the frequency of severe psychological responses in surviving family members in a religious Muslim culture. Twenty‐three wives, twelve daughters and twenty‐six sons of heads of households massacred while praying in the Hebron mosque on 25 February 1994 were interviewed with the clinician‐administered PTSD scale; 50% of daughters, 39% of wives, and 23% of sons met criteria for PTSD. PTSD or traumatic bereavement occurs with high frequency after a major tragedy in a Moslem society, despite religious admiration of dead martyrs. Depression and Anxiety 9:27–31, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.