WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- As war in the Middle East grinds on, three new studies showcase the high costs of conflict for children, civilians and soldiers alike.
The most distressing report found that 98 percent of children in the Gaza Strip have experienced or witnessed war trauma. The research by John Pringle at Queen's College in Kingston, Ontario, analyzed data from the Gaza Child Health Survey to gauge the impact of the ongoing conflict.
Forty-seven percent of Gaza's residents are minors, and most have been tear-gassed, had their homes searched or damaged, or witnessed violent conflict, said Pringle, a community health and epidemiology researcher.
"The Psychological Effects of War on Palestinian Children," Pringle's first-of-its-kind master's thesis, concluded that among Gaza children:
-- A child who suffered a severe head injury has a four-times-higher risk of a resulting emotional disorder.
-- A severely beaten child has 3.9 times the risk of developing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
-- A child who has witnessed friends being killed or injured has 13 times the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder.
-- A child in a refugee camp is five times likelier to witness a traumatic event and four times likelier to directly suffer physical injury.
"It seems the international community is neglecting them, that somehow Palestinian children don't deserve the protections guaranteed under the Geneva Convention and humanitarian law," said Pringle.
"We must remember that where we drop our bombs, plant our landmines, and aim our guns, is where children are born, play, and go to school."
Another study found that chemical warfare during the Iran-Iraq conflict has had long-term psychological effects on Iranian civilians.
Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine, writing in the new issue of the Journal of American Medical Association devoted to issues of violence and human rights, found that those exposed to high-intensity warfare that included chemical weapons had "significantly higher" mental-health problems. In the town Sardasht, hit by an Iraqi mustard-gas attack ordered by Saddam Hussein:
-- 59 percent of residents had experienced PTSD at some point.
-- 33 percent currently suffered from PTSD.
-- 65 percent had major anxiety symptoms.
-- 41 percent showed signs of severe depression.
"Our results highlight the importance of examining long-term mental-health problems in communities affected by war, particularly in those exposed to chemical weapons," said research associate Farnoosh Hashemian, who led the study. She was raised in Iran and witnessed suffering from chemical warfare.
"Survivors of chemical warfare need access to a variety of resources to recover from the trauma that happened 17 years ago," she said. "We hope this study raises awareness about the horrifying effects of the use of chemical weaponry and demonstrates the urgent need for a stronger international commitment to destruction of such weapons."
The third study added to concerns that American soldiers who served in Iraq are beset by a variety of subtle as well as full-blown syndromes.
The study, led by psychologist Jennifer J. Vasterling of the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, found that two months after returning, veterans of the conflict had subtle memory lapses, confusion and attention deficits.
Yet the soldiers also showed faster reactions than their non-deployed counterparts -- changes Vasterling attributed to the generally "hypervigilant" state soldiers assume in a war zone.
Vasterling thinks the effects are likely to disappear over time -- an outcome that seems far less likely for the sad children of war and the civilian survivors of chemical attacks.
