Gaza PTSD

I reported for BBC Radio Scotland on how Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the sort of thing you might expect soldiers who've been in the thick of war fighting to develop. But research suggests almost a third of teenagers in Gaza show the symptoms of fully developed PTSD. The study which has just been published in the ARAB JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY looked at the effects of the Israeli action code-named "Cast Lead". That took place between the end of two thousand and eight and the beginning of two thousand and nine. But, of course, there's every reason to think the current offensive will produce similar effects.

(The picture is a flower that was growing at one of the locations where we did live TV and radio reports near the Gaza border at the end of 2008 during operation Cast Lead.)