Nor are all the health effects of long captivity psychological ones. In recent years, doctors have become much more aware of the price the body pays for unrelieved psychic stress. "Every organ system has stress responses and that type of reaction doesn't just stop within days or months after the hostage situation is resolved," said [Steve Pieczenik]. Some of the telltale signs of stress are ulcers and gastritis, heart palpitations and high blood pressure, headaches, insomnia, inability to concentrate - and the triggering or exacerbation of underlying disease. Some researchers have even claimed a link between long-term stress and the development of cancer and auto-immune disorders, such as arthritis and lupus erythematosis.

Because of the uniqueness of these hostages and the little that is known about the psychological and physical effects of being held hostage, the temptation will be great to subject those persons coming home from Iran to intense study. But that, too, can have its ill effects, as well as interfering with the struggle of the ex- hostages to get back to normal. Following the Hanafi Muslim episode, the 132 people involved found themselves besieged by researchers with the smell of government grant money in their nostrils.  hide...