title: Posttraumatic idioms of distress among Darfur refugees: Hozun and Majnun.
abstract: Although psychosocial programming is seen as essential to the humanitarian response to the Darfur conflict, aid groups lack culturally-appropriate assessment instruments for monitoring and evaluation. The current study used an emic-etic integrated approach to: (i) create a culturally-appropriate measure of distress (Study 1), and (ii) test the measure in structured interviews of 848 Darfuris living in two refugee camps in Chad (Study 2). Traditional healers identified two trauma-related idioms, hozun and majnun, which shared features with but were not identical to posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. Measures of these constructs were reliable and correlated with trauma, loss, and functional impairment. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in empirical symptom clusters conceptually parallel to general Western psychiatric constructs. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for psychosocial programming.
authors.affiliation: New York University School of Medicine, Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, 462 1st Avenue, CD 735, New York, NY 10016, USA. andrew.rasmussen@nyumc.org
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: Basila
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Katoni
authors.forename: Allen S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002596:Chad; D003469:Culture; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D013397:Sudan / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult