Missing or Killed

Abstract

Many people go missing during war and acts of terrorism. Do their families suffer an additional or different kind of mental health burden than families of people who are known to have been killed? Two groups of respondents, each comprising 56 women living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were included in the study. These were women whose husbands were either confirmed as having been killed during the 1992–1995 war or who were at the time of the study officially still listed as missing as a result of the war. These two groups filled in questionnaires on war events, postwar stressors, and mental health status. The results showed that the group with unconfirmed losses had higher levels of traumatic grief (measured on a version of the UCLA Grief Inventory) as well as severe depression (measured on the General Health Questionnaire), even when traumatic events and stressors were controlled for. This study represents one of the first empirical confirmations that, at least in a war context, suffering the unconfirmed loss of a family member has specific negative mental health consequences compared to suffering a confirmed loss. In particular the high levels of severe depression including suicidal ideation in this group give cause for concern.