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Psychological consequences of war and other conflicts

Guest Editors:
Dominic Murphy, PhD, King's College London, United Kingdom
Victoria Williamson, PhD, King's College London, United Kingdom
 

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, in situations of war or other armed conflicts, one in five people will experience depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or other psychosomatic problems. In light of ongoing and recent conflicts, BMC Psychology welcomed submissions to this Collection on the various aspects of mental health and armed conflicts.

New Content ItemThis Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Wellbeing and SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Dominic Murphy: King's College London & Combat Stress, United Kingdom

Professor Dominic Murphy is an academic clinical psychologist who works within the field of PTSD and military mental health. In 2013, he established and now runs a research department at Combat Stress, which is co-located with King’s College London.

Professor Murphy also serves as the Clinical Director of the King’s Centre for Military Health Research department at King’s College London, President of the UK Psychological Trauma Society (UKPTS), Director (Treasurer) of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ETSSS), Trustee and Director of Research at The Forces in Mind Trust, member of the Five Eyes International Mental Health Research and Innovation Consortium (MHRIC), and a member of the scientific advisory board for Chronic Pain Centre for Canadian veterans. Professor Murphy is a widely published scholar within the area of PTSD and military mental health. 

Victoria Williamson: King's College London, United Kingdom

Dr Victoria Williamson is a Researcher at King’s Centre for Military Health Research, King’s College London, and the University of Exeter. Her research interests are in psycho-traumatology—including in the context of combat trauma, human trafficking, and moral injury—and co-designing accessible mental health interventions.

About the Collection

BMC Psychology welcomed submissions for the Psychological consequences of war and other conflicts Collection.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, in situations of war or other armed conflicts, one in five people will experience depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or other psychosomatic problems. In light of ongoing and recent conflicts, BMC Psychology announced this Collection examining the various aspects of mental health and armed conflicts.

Topics of interest included, but were not limited to:

  • Mental health of civilians within the targeted homeland
  • Health of soldiers on all sides of the conflict
  • Consumption of war-related information through the internet, social media, television, and radio
  • The longer-term impacts as individuals leave the military and become veterans


All manuscripts submitted to this journal, including those submitted to collections and special issues, are assessed in line with our editorial policies and the journal’s peer review process. Reviewers and editors are required to declare competing interests and can be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Wellbeing and SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

Image credit: Motortion / Getty Images / iStock

  1. Since the cold war, the population have not felt so much fear about the outbreak of the Third World War, sensation revived with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

    Authors: Christian R. Mejia, Renzo Felipe Carranza Esteban, Oscar Mamani-Benito, Telmo Raúl Aveiro-Róbalo, Elvira G. Zamora-Huaringa, Leonel Vega-Useche, Valeria J. Padilla-F, Deisy P. Almada-Lesmo, Jorge Andrés Castrillón-Lozano, Alan A. Martínez-Bourdier, Jose Armada, Aldo Alvarez-Risco, Shyla Del-Aguila-Arcentales, Neal M. Davies and Jaime A. Yáñez
    Citation: BMC Psychology 2025 13:423
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. The recent International Classifications of Diseases-11 (ICD-11) distinction of complex- post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), has highlighted a research gap in ex...

    Authors: Phoebe Howlett, Theadora Lilian Rose Sudera, Natasha Biscoe, Jo Billings and Dominic Murphy
    Citation: BMC Psychology 2025 13:422
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Colombia faces the dual challenge of integrating into civil life two large segments of population; more than fourteen thousand FARC-EP ex-combatants, as part of the peace agreement to end the five-decade confl...

    Authors: Lucia G. Medina, Isabel Correa, Myriam Sierra-Puentes, Mohammed El Hazzouri and Camilo Hurtado-Parrado
    Citation: BMC Psychology 2025 13:359
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Armed conflict unvaryingly leads to a loss of life, serious violations of human rights and international law, and extensive human suffering. As technological advances change the landscape of modern armed confl...

    Authors: Victoria Williamson and Dominic Murphy
    Citation: BMC Psychology 2025 13:197
    Content type: Editorial Published on:

  5. Psychological distress has significantly impacted students in Egypt and Jordan. These countries have faced many challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the fallout from the conflict in Syria, and the war ...

    Authors: Mohamed Hendawy, Mohamed Abouzid, Aliaa Gamal, Aseel Ghanayem, Muna Amer, Mohammad Tanashat, Nael Kamel Eltewacy, Mohamed Mustafa Mohamed, Eman Ayman Nada and Ismail A. Ibrahim
    Citation: BMC Psychology 2024 12:678
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Research in recent years has increasingly highlighted the relationship between exposure to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs) and poor mental health outcomes. Human trafficking survivors often report...

    Authors: Victoria Williamson, Dominic Murphy, Cornelius Katona, Christina Curry, Ella Weldon and Neil Greenberg
    Citation: BMC Psychology 2024 12:654
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Veterans residing in Northern Ireland (NI) likely experience higher levels of co-occurring lifetime trauma exposure and associated co-occurring mental health symptoms, due to the Troubles. As NI veterans have ...

    Authors: Catherine Hitch, Erik Spikol, Paul Toner and Cherie Armour
    Citation: BMC Psychology 2024 12:523
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Veteran residents in Northern Ireland (NI) are an under-researched population. Little is known about their experiences of trauma and mental health management. The overall mental well-being of veterans living i...

    Authors: Catherine Hitch, Paul Toner, Hannah Champion and Cherie Armour
    Citation: BMC Psychology 2024 12:479
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. Problematic anger, characterized by excessive frequency, intensity, and duration of anger which causes substantial emotional distress and functional interference, poses a marked challenge in military populatio...

    Authors: Andreas Espetvedt Nordstrand, Frederick Anyan, Hans Jakob Bøe, Odin Hjemdal, Laura Katherine Noll, Jon Gerhard Reichelt, David Forbes and Amy B. Adler
    Citation: BMC Psychology 2024 12:451
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Psychological consequences of war and other conflicts" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.