Journal of Management Practices, Humanities and Social Sciences Vol 7 Issue 2 pp. 40-48 https://doi.org/10.33152/jmphss-7.2.5 ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION Prevalence of Psychiatric Morbidity Among Victims of Terrorist Attacks: Comparative Study Haroon Rashid 1* , Muhammad Rizwan 2 1 Clinical Psychologist, Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan 2 Director, Centre for Counselling and Social Well-being, University of Haripur, Haripur, Pakistan Abstract— To evaluate the occurrence of psychiatric morbidity Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); mood state; (state of depres- sion, anxiety, stress) and its effect on general health among victims of terrorist attacks (mild injuries, severe injuries & amputation) in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Current study was a cross-sectional correlational research applied on three groups of admitted patients; who were injured during attacks (with mild injuries, severe injuries & severe injuries along with amputation), the data were collected after one week of attack during from the patients who had direct exposure to terrorist attacks and sought treatment from Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan, during the period of November 2021 to September 2022. Sample included all the survivors who sought medical assistance from the hospital. The instruments comprised upon Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R 22), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). PTSD has positive association with Depression, Anxiety and Stress but negative association with General Health Questionnaire among terrorists’ attack victims. The terrorist attack victims had signiicantly higher psychiatric morbidity than non-exposed participants. Psychiatric morbidity was found highest in the victims of sur- vivors of bomb blasts. Index Terms— Psychiatric morbidity, Mood state, General health, Terrorist attacks Received: 12 November 2022; Accepted: 25 December 2022; Published: 31 March 2023 Introduction Unfortunately, Pakistani nation has been the target of suicide bomb blasts by the terrorists for the last two decades and resulting directly in deaths and injuries of innocent citizens which aroused massive feelings of stress, anxiety, depression and mental trauma among the survivors. In this war on terrorism 80,000 (https://tribune.com.pk/story/860790/80000-pakistanis-killed-in-us-war-on-terror-report), Pakistani have been sacriiced their costly lives from 2004 to 2022 and large numbers were taken to the emergency department of various hospitals. The enormousness of substantial destruction of the terrorist attacks were exceptional in the Asia. The terrorism had become growing trend in Pakistan, resultantly many mental health issues surfaced. The research conducted (Dawn, 2001-2011) witnessed an almost 100% increase in the occurrences of psychological disorders, especially stress-related disorders, and depression. After September 9/11 attacks of United States Pakistan was exposed to extreme terrorism because she supported United states in the war against terrorism. This caused mass penetration of terrorists from North-Western boundary due to which thousands of Pakistani people lost their lives. * Email: haroonrashid27@gmail.com © 2023 Journal of Management Practices, Humanities and Social Sciences (JMPHSS). All rights reserved.