Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Battle Not With Monsters: Olfactory Stimuli And Traumatic Memories In Liberian Civil War Survivors, Lucinda Woodward, Meghan Kahn, Kathryn Ball, Brittany Sizemore

Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences

Following the reestablishment of peace in war-torn Liberia, a door-to-door mental health epidemiological study sampling of 500 Liberian civil war survivors living in Monrovia was implemented in July 2010. Under the supervision of a clinical psychologist, surveys assessing demographics, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and war trauma experiences were administered to roughly equal numbers of men and women by volunteers working for a local nongovernmental organization. From an evolutionary perspective, two hypotheses were tested based on previous research findings that linked PTSD symptoms to olfactory experiences. First, it was predicted that olfactory-related trauma would be positively correlated to higher reports …