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HEALTH-BALKANS: Extensive Depression Reported in Serbia

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Jun 8 2004 (IPS) - A high number of people in Serbia could be suffering from depression they are not aware of, a study suggests.

Depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “remain a significant public health concern,” says a study on ‘prevalent mental health problems three years after NATO bombing of Serbia’.

The study by Serb and U.S. experts was published last week in BMC Medicine, an independent online publishing house for peer-reviewed biological and medical research.

The study was carried out on 562 patients who visited the emergency departments of Serbian hospitals in 2002. Besides being treated for their stated ailment, they filled in a questionnaire about their exposure to traumatic events and experiences. They were asked to give information on a variety of symptoms that made them uncomfortable.

“Public health officials, clinicians, and others with an interest in humanitarian work should bear in mind that a considerable number of patients who visit emergency departments may still harbour the mental health consequences of war,” says co-author William Fernandez.

“The study confirms what we already suspected,” one of the researchers Dr Gordana Subar told IPS. “People coming to search for acute care may be suffering from serious mental health problems.”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombed Serbia for 11 weeks in 1999 with the stated intention of checking the repressive policies of former president Slobodan Milosevic against ethnic Albanians in the southern Serbian province Kosovo.

Almost half the people surveyed had symptoms of depression, the study says. About 13 percent were found to have symptoms of PTSD.

PTSD arises from an experience of traumatic experiences and violence. It brings accumulated stress, which leads to deep depression or aggressive outbursts of violence.

This is the first such study on the mental health of Serbs in 15 years that saw devastating developments bring a country to ruin. The NATO bombing of Serbia for 78 days in 1999 was only the final stage of the devastation of Serbia under Milosevic, who was removed in 2000 after a decade in power.

That period was marked by Serbia’s involvement in the wars of disintegration of former Yugoslavia. The wars took the lives of more than 240,000 people, and turned three million people into refugees in a population of some 24 million.

Serbs within Serbia paid a different price. From the most prosperous place in the Balkans in the 1980s, Serbia became the most impoverished one under Milosevic. Two rounds of strict United Nations sanctions that included an embargo on oil, international trade and air traffic ruined the economy, while isolation made it a pariah state.

Shortage of basic goods became chronic, offices and factories closed down and people were left to tend to themselves. Healthcare, education and social services collapsed. On the top of that came NATO bombing.

“It would not be normal for people to react differently, that is, not to have mental problems,” leading Belgrade psychiatrist Dr Sanda Raskovic said. “But these statistics are only the tip of the iceberg, as so many people do not search for any help – either in the emergency units or elsewhere.”

Figures at hospitals for mental health in Belgrade show that the number of patients treated for depression, neurosis and paranoia rose by 35 percent in the 1990s compared to the previous decade, Dr Raskovic says.

The number of suicides rose from one in 100,000 in the 1980s to 22.6 per 100,000 in the 1990s, says Sladjana Dragisic from the Belgrade psychiatry institute Laza Lazarevic.

“An increasing number of Serbs say there is nothing worth living for,” says Andjelka Milic, professor of sociology at the University of Belgrade, who conducted a recent study of family life in Serbia. “Two-thirds of families polled said that they feel like losers in all aspects of life.”

The decade of Milosevic meant a battle for survival among Serbs, sociologists say. People forgot experiences of prosperity or the joy of living.

Economic recovery and better times are still far off, because the transition to a market economy has left thousands unemployed. Daily consumption of bensedine, the most popular sedative in Serbia, is about three million tablets. That is in a population of 7.5 million.

Officials at Serbia’s ministry of health declined comment on the study.