Trauma experiences, posttraumatic stress, dissociation, and depression in Cambodian refugees.
OBJECTIVE
The authors' goal was to determine the levels of trauma and psychiatric symptoms in a randomly selected group of Cambodian refugees and to determine the relationship between the amount of trauma experienced and subsequent psychiatric symptoms.


METHODS
Data on traumatic experiences and symptoms of posttraumatic stress, dissociation, depression, and anxiety were collected on 50 randomly selected Cambodian refugees who had resettled in the United States.


RESULTS
Subjects experienced multiple and severe traumas and showed high levels of all symptoms measured. Forty-three (86%) of the subjects met DSM-III-R criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder, 48 (96%) had high dissociation scores, and 40 (80%) could be classified as suffering from clinical depression. Correlations between trauma scores and symptom scores and among symptom scores were moderate to large.


CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that a high proportion of Cambodian refugees who are not psychiatric patients suffer from severe psychiatric symptoms and that there is a relationship between the amount of trauma they experienced and the severity of these symptoms.
Department of Psychology, Beloit College, WI 53511.
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Carlson
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Rosser-Hogan
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002160:Cambodia / Q000208:ethnology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology