Over the past two years, the Ministry of Health has recorded a significant increase in the number of patients diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This was reported by Kommersant Ukrainian with reference to the Ministry of Health.
In 2023, the number of such patients almost quadrupled compared to 2021, and in the first two months of 2024, the number of patients with PTSD is actually equal to the number for the whole of 2021.
It is noted that not only war, but any event that carries a threat to death or integrity can be a prerequisite for the development of PTSD. It depends on a person’s resilience, circumstances, available support, and other factors. But there is no doubt that the full-scale war has had a significant impact on the lives and mental state of Ukrainians.
“According to various estimates, 12-20% of people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event can develop PTSD. If we take complex disorders such as PTSD, there are clear global statistics about 15-20% of people who can develop it if they have experienced this huge trauma. And part of this 20% can recover quite quickly. There is no need to think that everyone will need treatment, that everyone will have PTSD – this is a myth,”
– the report says.
According to the NHS, the number of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by year is as follows:
- 2021: 3167 patients,
- 2022: 7051,
- 2023: 12494,
- 2024: 3292 patients (as of 06.03.2024).
What are the symptoms of PTSD?
The Ministry of Health noted that PTSD does not depend on gender or age. Symptoms can appear in a short or long period after the trauma, usually within the first three months. They include hyper-excitability, reliving the trauma, problems with memory and emotions, sleep disturbances, fatigue, irritability, headaches, attempts to avoid everything related to the traumatic event, and others.
“Established PTSD is characterised by constant re-experiencing of the trauma, triggers, reminders, flashbacks, intrusions – memories from the past that interfere with the present and interfere with life. This is a constant return to the trauma, a person is thrown back to those events,” explains Ksenia Voznitsyna, director of the Lisova Polyana Centre for Mental Health and Rehabilitation at the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. – “There is also a return to the past, and it is difficult to talk about it. Avoidance (of recalling the traumatic event – Ed.) is the most characteristic and dangerous symptom.”
It should be understood that PTSD is mostly curable and successfully resolves in most patients.
If you experience the first symptoms, you should seek help as soon as possible. For example, to your family doctor or to a family doctor in a medical institution that has an agreement with the NHSU under the package “Support and treatment of adults and children with mental disorders at the primary level of medical care”.