Stress reactions among Swedish health care personnel in unifil, South Lebanon 1982–1984

Since 1948 almost 50,000 Swedish men and women have been in military UN service in more than 15 countries under very different circumstances. The stress situation for UN soldiers is quite different form soldiers in other military situations. The UN soldier might be scared by his own aggressiveness, because of his limited opportunities to use his weapons. The mission for the UNIFIL hospital in Naqoura, a few kilometres north of the Israeli border, is to provide the UN forces (5000–6000 soldiers) with hospital care and specialized medical services. Three contingents ( N = 421) during three years have been studied by means of, questionnaires, self‐rating scales, a personality inventory test (KSP) and personal interviews. The personal interviews were structured and performed during the last mouth of service for each contingent. The UN soldiers were interviewed by six experienced psychiatrists, who were all well acquainted with the Swedish military system. All the interviews took place within the Swedish UN hospital area in south Lebanon, during one week for each group.