[The dynamics of psychological maladjustment states of chronic stress in inhabitants of areas involved in the Czernobyl nuclear accident].

The authors summarize findings from a 1990 study with 300 inhabitants from areas with various degrees of contamination on psychological, psychiatric, and somatic consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. With critical reference to previous studies and their endogenic interpretation the specific situational and environmental complexity is seen as pathogenetic. The authors discuss the APA DSM-III-R 309-89 posttraumatic syndrome and give specifications of this kind of over all, and long term stress.