Multidisciplinary treatment for traumatized refugees in a naturalistic setting: symptom courses and predictors

Abstract

Background: Multidisciplinary treatment approaches are commonly used in specialized psychosocial centres for the treatment of traumatized refugees, but empirical evidence for their efficacy is inconsistent. Objective: In order to obtain more evidence on the development of mental health and well-being of traumatized refugees who receive multidisciplinary treatment, symptom courses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression and somatoform symptoms as well as in the subjective quality of life were investigated in the course of a multidisciplinary treatment. In addition, it was analysed if sociodemographic variables were predictors for possible changes in symptomatology and quality of life. Method: N = 76 patients of the outpatient clinic of a psychosocial centre for traumatized refugees receiving regular multidisciplinary treatment were surveyed using standardized questionnaires at three measurement points (at the beginning of treatment, and after an average of 7 and 14 months of treatment) in a single-group design. Results: Multilevel analysis showed significant improvements of symptoms of PTSD (p < .001), depression (p < .001), anxiety (p < .001), and somatoform symptoms (p = .002) as well as of the subjective quality of life (p < .001) over time. Among the tested predictors (gender, age, country of origin), age was a significant predictor for the course of somatoform symptoms (p < .05). Younger patients showed greater improvements in symptomatology over time than older ones. Conclusions: The results suggest that the received multidisciplinary treatment had a positive effect on trauma-related symptoms as well as on quality of life of traumatized refugees. There was no indication that sociodemographic characteristics predicted the symptom courses of the patients, except for somatoform symptoms. Younger patients benefitted more from multidisciplinary treatment than older ones.

The psychotherapeutic care of refugees in Europe: treatment needs, delivery reality and recommendations for action

“…Yet, according to a recent Dutch study, only 20% of refugees with PTSD sought psychotherapeutic assistance, although there are effective treatment options for traumatized and mentally ill refugees (e.g. Acarturk et al, 2015; Stammel et al, 2017). In the course of the 7 year follow-up period, the proportion increased to 54%, but remained relatively low (www.gezondheidsraad.nl).…”

“…Christine Knaevelsrud, Nadine Stammel and Miranda Olff (2017) refer in their editorial to the international studies on the prevalence of mental health problems among refugees. Refugees are people who are forced to leave their home country either temporarily or permanently because of political repression, war or life-threatening hardship.…”

Evaluation of the efficacy of a South African psychosocial model for the rehabilitation of torture survivors

“…Vulnerability to mental health challenges has been linked to pre-migratory exposure to war trauma and torture, the migration process itself, and the post-migratory stressors of host countries which include poverty and inadequate housing, and difficulties with asylum procedures (Bogic, Njoku, & Priebe, 2015;Buhmann, Mortensen, Nordentoft, Ryberg, & Ekstrøm, 2015;Jaranson & Quiroga, 2011;Jørgensen et al, 2017;Stammel et al, 2017).…”

“…Ethical concerns of differential treatment of clients in control trials (Jaranson & Quiroga, 2011;Stammel et al, 2017), the expense of scarce resources of rehabilitation programmes , and generalisability of study results (Pérez-sales, Witcombe, & Otero Oyague, 2017) are among the challenges of outcome studies.…”

Traumatized refugees: identifying needs and facing challenges for mental health care

“…In the third research article, 76 adult patients at a treatment centre for torture victims and traumatized refugees were surveyed in the context of their regular multidisciplinary psychotherapeutic treatment (Stammel et al, 2017). The study shows that symptoms of trauma-associated disorders decline and quality of life improves over the course of treatment.…”