Religious moral beliefs as mental health protective factor of war veterans suffering from PTSD, depressiveness, anxiety, tobacco and alcohol abuse in comorbidity.

INTRODUCTION: Our aim was to investigate is there association between level of religious moral beliefs and severity of PTSD symptoms, depressiion symptoms, anxiety and severity of alcohol abuse we tested 152 war veterans on presence of PTSD, depression symptoms, anxiety, alcohol misuse and level of religious moral beliefs.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We used Harvard trauma questionnaire (HTQ), Hopkins Check Scale SBCL 25, check list for alcohol misuse MAST. Subjects were assessed with regard to the level of belief in some basic ethical principles that arise from religious moral values. The score of religious moral belief index was used to correlate with severity of PTSD symptoms, depression symptoms, anxiety and severity of alcohol misuse.

RESULTS: Mean age of tested subjects was 40.8 (SD=6.6) years. The score of the moral belief index was negatively correlated to PTSD symptom severity and depressiveness (Pearson's r=-0.325, p<0.001; r=-0.247, p=0.005, respectively). Besides that the score of moral belief index negatively correlated with presented anxiety (Pearson's r=-0.199,p=0.026). Related to severity of tobacco and alcohol misuse we found negative association of these with the moral belief index (Pearson's r=-0.227, p=0.011; r=-0.371, p<0.001, respectively).

CONCLUSION: A higher index of religious moral beliefs in war veterans enables better control distress, providing better mental health stability. It enables post traumatic conflicts typical for combatants' survivors to be more easily overcome. It also causes healthier reactions to external stimuli. A higher index of religious moral beliefs of war veterans provides a healthier and more efficient mechanism of tobacco and alcohol misuse control. In this way, it helps overcoming postwar psychosocial problems and socialization of the personality, leading to the improvement in mental health.