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Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
Published in: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 1/2013

Open Access 01-12-2013 | Research

Long-term effects of sulfur mustard on civilians’ mental health 20 years after exposure (The Sardasht-Iran Cohort Study)

Authors: Rasoul Roshan, Parvin Rahnama, Zeinab Ghazanfari, Ali Montazeri, Mohammad Reza Soroush, Mohammad Mehdi Naghizadeh, Mahdiyeh Melyani, Azadeh Tavoli, Tooba Ghazanfari

Published in: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes | Issue 1/2013

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Abstract

Background

Sulfur mustard (SM) is an alkylating agent that induces short and long term toxicity on various organs. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term psychological symptoms among samples of exposed to sulfur mustard gas compared with unexposed civilians 20 years after exposure.

Methods

This historical cohort study was conducted on 495 civilians of Sardasht and Rabat in two age matched groups, including 367 sulfur mustard exposed participants from Sardasht and 128 unexposed subjects from Rabat. Psychological symptoms was assessed using the Symptom Check List-90 Revised (SCL-90-R) including measures of somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism providing three global distress indices namely: Global Severity Index (GSI), Positive Symptom Total (PST) and Positive Symptom Distress Index (PSDI). Comparison was made between exposed and unexposed civilians.

Results

There were significant differences in somatization (P = 0.002), obsessive-compulsive (P = 0.031), depression (P = 0.007), anxiety (P = 0.042), and hostility (P = 0.002), between the exposed and unexposed groups. In addition there were significant differences between two groups concerning the GSI (P = 0.045) and the PSDI (P < 0.001). The differences between two groups in other subscales were not significant.

Conclusions

The findings from this study showed that civilians who exposed to sulfur mustard gas were suffering from a number of psychological symptoms even 20 years after exposure. Providing mental health services and more resource allocation for this community are highly recommended.
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Metadata
Title
Long-term effects of sulfur mustard on civilians’ mental health 20 years after exposure (The Sardasht-Iran Cohort Study)
Authors
Rasoul Roshan
Parvin Rahnama
Zeinab Ghazanfari
Ali Montazeri
Mohammad Reza Soroush
Mohammad Mehdi Naghizadeh
Mahdiyeh Melyani
Azadeh Tavoli
Tooba Ghazanfari
Publication date
01-12-2013
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes / Issue 1/2013
Electronic ISSN: 1477-7525
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-11-69

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