Follow-up studies of World War II and Korean war prisoners. II. Morbidity, disability, and maladjustments

Abstract

US Army veterans taken prisoner (POW's) in World War II and in the Korean War are compared with controls as to hospital admissions from 1946 to 1965 (1954-1965 for Korean War POW's), and as to symptoms, disability, and maladjustments in 1966-1967. Sequelae of the POW experience are both somatic and psychiatric, and are of greatest extent and severity among Pacific World War II POW's. Among European World War II POW's only psychiatric sequelae are apparent. Somatic sequelae were most prevalent in the early years after liberation, but for Pacific World War II POW's they persist in the form of higher hospital admission rates for many specific causes in the most recent period. Nevertheless, persistent psychiatric sequelae (especially psychoneurosis but also schizophrenia) are the more notable and pervasive for both Pacific World War II POW's and Korean War POW's as seen not only in elevated hospital admission rates but also in VA disability awards and in symptoms reported on the cornell Medical Index Health Questionnaire. The excess morbidity appears to correlate well with retrospective accounts of weight-loss and nutritional deficiency diseases and symptoms during the POW period.