Australian Prisoners of War of the Japanese: Post-War Psychiatric Hospitalisation and Psychological Morbidity

Abstract

Evidence of chronic psychiatric and psychosomatic morbidity was found in a randomly selected sample of Australian prisoners of war (POWs) of the Japanese over the 40-year period following the Second World War. A clinical interview revealed more contemporary depressive and anxiety disorders and more post-war psychiatric illness overall than in a comparison group of randomly selected combatant veterans of the Pacific and South East Asian campaign. The POWs were no more likely to have had psychiatric admissions than non-POWs and fewer of them had had multiple psychiatric admissions. POWs had more duodenal ulcers than controls but otherwise their physical health was similar, as was their age-adjusted mortality in the post-war years. Finally, POWs were more likely to have Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Service Pensions than controls.