Research Article Open Access Mental Health in Family Medicine 2016; 12:200-204 Research Artcle 2016 Mental Health and Family Medicine Ltd arrested during the frst (1987-1993) and the second Intifada (2000-2005) [20,21]. At the beginning of 2012 (the starting point of this study), Palestinian captives’ number in the Israeli prisons reached about 4500; most of them, 89%, are from West Bank governorates, the others from the Gaza Strip and from East Jerusalem. According to the Ministry’s captives’ report of the same year, on average nine people get arrested daily, and the sentence for these detainees was ranging from some months till everlasting. One third of these detained men is married, and has wives outside of prison [21]. This involves that a large number of wives are confronted and need to deal with the reality of the imprisonment of their husbands. Given the paucity of knowledge regarding the impact of detention on partners’ health in contexts of war and political conficts, and the large number of people around the world confronted with this, this study investigates the impact of detention of Palestinian males onto their spouses’ physical and mental health, hereby considering also possible associations with the participants’ living situation (presence of children, housing, living environment), and the period of detention of the husband. Method Study sample Geographically, the POT divided into three parts: the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza strip. For this study, the area of Introducton The detention of a husband, partner or spouse has a signifcant psychological impact on the wellbeing of partners, with possible large emotional diffculties as a consequence, such as loneliness, feelings of isolation, and symptoms of depression, posttraumatic stress (PTSD) and anxiety, to medical and health problems, and even the development of unhealthy behaviors and antisocial activities [1-12]. Imprisonment of a partner may also lead to relational problems and possibly divorce, to social dysfunction and to problems in interactions with signifcant others [13,14]. Besides, wives of an imprisoned husband are regularly facing huge challenges regarding their parental role [4,12,15-17]. Further, stigmatization and shame about their husbands action are also commonly found [18,19]. However, this extended body of research has mainly focused on the consequences of husbands being arrested in western nations and being detained because of criminal conduct. Little is yet known about the psychological impact of detention of husbands/spouses in contexts of ongoing political and armed confict. One of these contexts of protracted armed confict are the Palestinian Occupied Territories (POT), where since 1967, there are ongoing political conficts between Israel and the Palestinian people. One important element in this confict is the detention of Palestinian men, experienced by more than one ffth (700,000-800,000) of them. The majority have been The Impact of Men’s Detention on the Psychological Wellbeing of Palestinian Women Amer Shehadeh Research group Interpersonal, Discursive and Narratve Studies (IDNS) and Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situatons (CCVS), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Gerrit Loots Research group Interpersonal, Discursive and Narratve Studies (IDNS) and Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situatons (CCVS), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Johan Vanderfaeillie Department of Clinical and Lifespan Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Ilse Derluyn Department of Social Welfare Studies & Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situatons, Ghent University, Belgium Abstract: Detention has a main impact on the health and psychological wellbeing of those leaving behind, in particular the partners. Little is known however on the impact of detention of men on their spouses when the imprisonment happens in situations of protracted armed confict. This study therefore aims at investigating the consequences of the detention of men onto the health of their spouse living in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. A random sample of 360 Palestinian women compared the health of spouses of men who had been imprisoned for different periods of time with a group of women whose husbands had not been imprisoned. All participants completed self-report questionnaires on posttraumatic stress disorders symptoms (UCLA PTSD Index) and general health problems (General Health Questionnaire 28). Detention of men puts their spouses clearly at risk to develop several health problems, even more for older women and for those without children. The time the man was imprisoned had a various impact onto their wives’ health. These fndings call for important supporting interventions for this highly vulnerable group. MeSH Headings/Keywords: Detention; Health; Psychological problems; War-affected women ABSTRACT