title: Prevalence of depression in Syrian refugees and the influence of religiosity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many surveys have underlined the high levels of distress Syrian refugees have endured since the conflict aroused in their country, yet few have used reliable diagnostic tools for the clinical assessment of resulting mental disorders. The aim of our study is to assess for the onset of new depressive disorders following the Syrian war, and to investigate the correlation of religiosity with depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  Single individual interviews were used, in a sample of 310 Syrian forced migrants, retrospectively assessing for depressive disorders with onset at different timelines of the conflict outbreak. Religiosity was assessed in a cross-sectional design using a reliable, recently developed and tested tool. Bivariate analysis and logistic regression analysis were used with a level of significance at 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of current depression was 43.9% (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 38.5-49.4%) with no difference across all socio-demographic factors, including gender. The overall mean for religiosity for the current sample was moderate (mean=9.76; standard deviation SD=2.34). No substantial correlation was found with religiosity. The prevalence rate for pre-war depression was 6.5% (95% CI: 4.2-9.8%) following the global pattern of socio-demographic epidemiological characteristics. Prevalence for past depression was 27.1% (95% CI: 22.5-32.3%); for current dysthymia: 4.5% (95% CI: 2.7-7.4%); for prewar and past dysthymia: 1% (95% CI: 0.3-2.8%), all with no significant differences detected across all demographic variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this retrospective study on a sample of Syrian refugees who fled their country after the war, we found a substantial emergence of depressive disorders with no meaningful correlation with the level of religiosity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Wadih J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Naja
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. Electronic address: michaelangelo.aoun@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Michaelangelo P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Aoun
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Eliane L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: El Khoury
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Fabiola J Bou
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Abdallah
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Ramzi S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Haddad
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology*; D012067:Religion; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013593:Syria / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult