War and mental health: a brief overview

This is the third of four articles

Series editor: Anthony B Zwi (Anthony.Zwi@lshtm.ac.uk)

About 40 violent conflicts are currently active and nearly 1% of the people in the world are refugees or displaced persons. Over 80% of all refugees are in developing countries, although 4 million have claimed asylum in western Europe in the past decade. Many wars are being played out on the terrain of subsistence economies; most conflict involves regimes at war with sectors of their own society—generally the poor and particular ethnic groups, such as the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Atrocity—extrajudicial execution, torture, disappearances, and sexual violation—generates terror, which maximises control over whole populations, as does the intentional destruction of the fabric of social, economic, and cultural life. Community leaders, health workers and facilities, schools, academics, places of worship, and anyone who speaks out for human rights and justice are often targets. In many regions such war is a factor in the daily lives and decision making of a whole society.