title: Somatic panic-attack equivalents in a community sample of Rwandan widows who survived the 1994 genocide.
abstract: The present study is the first to attempt to determine rates of panic attacks, especially 'somatically focused' panic attacks, panic disorder, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression levels in a population of Rwandans traumatized by the 1994 genocide. The following measures were utilized: the Rwandan Panic-Disorder Survey (RPDS); the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ); and the PTSD Checklist (PCL). Forty of 100 Rwandan widows suffered somatically focused panic attacks during the previous 4 weeks. Thirty-five (87%) of those having panic attacks suffered panic disorder, making the rate of panic disorder for the entire sample 35%. Rwandan widows with panic attacks had greater psychopathology on all measures. Somatically focused panic-attack subtypes seem to constitute a key response to trauma in the Rwandan population. Future studies of traumatized non-Western populations should carefully assess not only somatoform disorder but also somatically focused panic attacks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: Athanase
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hagengimana
authors.forename: Devon
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hinton
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bird
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pollack
authors.forename: Roger K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Pitman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006708:Homicide / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012432:Rwanda / Q000453:epidemiology; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017805:Widowhood / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data