Traumatic experiences and psychological distress in an urban refugee population seeking treatment services.
While a growing literature has addressed the psychological consequences of torture and refugee trauma, most studies have focused on homogeneous samples drawn from a single region. Thus, relatively little research has attempted to identify demographic or experiential factors that might help explain different levels of distress in these individuals. We measured depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in a convenience sample of refugees and survivors of torture seeking treatment in a torture treatment program (N = 325). We found 81.1% of patients had clinically significant anxiety, 84.5% had clinically significant depressive symptoms, and 45.7% had significant PTSD symptoms. Regression analyses revealed that anxiety and depressive symptom were significant higher among women (beta = .08, p = 0.02 and beta = .22, p = 0.0001 for anxiety and depression respectively) and those who reported death threats as part of their traumatic experiences (beta = .10, p = 0.033 and beta = .12, p = 0.036 respectively). Symptoms of PTSD were also predicted by death threats (beta = .22, p = 0.03), but were also influenced by the experience of rape (beta = .33, p < 0.001), family torture experiences (beta = .23, p = 0.022), religion (beta = .21, p = 0.03), and age (beta = -.18, p = 0.004). The clinical implications of these results are discussed.
Program for Survivors of Torture, Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, New York, USA.
Allen
A
Keller
Dechen
D
Lhewa
Barry
B
Rosenfeld
Emily
E
Sachs
Asher
A
Aladjem
Ilene
I
Cohen
Hawthorne
H
Smith
Katherine
K
Porterfield
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011902:Rape / Q000523:psychology; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012737:Sex Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D014104:Torture / Q000523:psychology*; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*