Erenköy Syndrome. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Turkish Cypriot Soldiers of Erenköy Exclave Battle

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Chapter 2. METHOD
2.1. Participants
The present study was held from April 2014 until July 2014. Population of the study includes Turkish Cypriot Fighters and Erenköy Turkish Cypriot Fighters, which were recruited by phone call invitation. List with names and telephone numbers of Turkish Cypriot Fighters were obtained from the Turkish Resistance Organization, the numbers of Erenköy Turkish Cypriot Fighters were obtained from Erenköy Turkish Cypriot Fighters Organization. Then numbers were randomly determined. Participants were contacted by telephone and agreed to participate in the current study. The sample consisted of 100 male Turkish Cypriot Fighters, 50 of them battled in Erenköy (from total 562) and 50 comparison participants who battled in other regions of Cyprus during Cyprus war 1963-1974. All participants were given written informed consent. The structured interview for this study was conducted during 3 months period. Participants were interviewed on a voluntary basis by researcher of the present study.
Diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was made with Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) (Blake et al, 1995), a structured interview yielding PTSD diagnoses according to DSM-IV criteria (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Participants first indicated their exposure to stressful life events on a standard life events checklist, a follow-up interview then assessed whether these events met criterion a (exposure to a traumatic event). The participant was then asked to choose the two most stressful of the events reported. The symptom interview focused on the presence of any PTSD symptoms related to the two events, over the participant's life as well as in the past month. Symptoms were assessed regardless of whether the selected events met criterion a, but the disorder was only diagnosed if both criterion A and the symptom criteria were met. Participants could receive up to two diagnoses of PTSD associated with the two events;