Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Psychiatric Co-morbidity among Syrian Refugees of Different Ages: the Role of Trauma Centrality

Abstract

It has been documented that trauma centrality is associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychiatric co-morbidity among Syrian refugees. Whether age would influence the levels of the above constructs and the association between trauma centrality and distress outcomes is unclear. This study compared age differences in 1) the levels of trauma centrality, posttraumatic stress disorder and psychiatric co-morbidity, and 2) models depicting the association between trauma centrality and distress outcomes among Syrian refugees. One thousand one hundred and ninety-seven refugees completed the Centrality of Event Scale, Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and General Health Questionnaire-28. Age groups were divided into young, middle-aged adults and adults of 45 or above. No significant group differences were found in the proportion of refugees meeting the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Controlling for demographic variables, all subscales of trauma centrality and psychiatric co-morbidity were significantly different between groups. Young adults reported significantly less trauma centrality and psychiatric co-morbidity than the other groups. Multiple-indicator multiple-cause modelling showed that trauma centrality was significantly correlated with PTSD and psychiatric co-morbidity. Multi-group analysis showed the model for the young adult group to be significantly different from the middle-aged group model. To conclude, age did not seem to influence the severity of PTSD among Syrian refugees. The war had a less severe impact on young adults' sense of self and other psychological problems than those who were older. The way in which young and middle-aged adults responded to distress varied depending on environment and personal characteristics.

Post-traumatic growth and its predictors among Syrian refugees in Istanbul: A mental health population survey

“…A similar mean score of 51.36 (SD=19.90) was reported with Syrian refugees living in Jordan ( Rizkalla and Segal, 2018 ) and in Turkey ( M = 49.11, SD=29.11) ( Ersahin, 2020 ). The prevalence of PTSD in this sample (28.76%) was within the range (11.4%−83.4%) found in other studies of Syrian refugees living in Turkey and European host countries ( Alpak et al., 2015 ; Tinghög et al., 2017 ; Chung et al., 2018 ; Georgiadou et al., 2018 ).…”

A Systematic Review of the Protective and Risk Factors Influencing the Mental Health of Forced Migrants: Implications for Sustainable Intercultural Mental Health Practice

“…Infrequent contact and interaction with relatives and friends found to be associated with poorer mental health outcomes [47]. Development of new social networks in host countries found to be an offsetting element [50].…”

Mental health and psychosocial support in conflict: children’s protection concerns and intervention outcomes in Syria

“…Physical and mental health research has often found that prolonged exposure to severe trauma, stress, and uncertainty ('toxic stress') especially during childhood and adolescence, can be associated with chronic physical illness including heart disease, a variety of cancers, stroke, and more severe mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and dysthymia later in life [8,10,[25][26][27][28]. Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the long-term negative effects of toxic stress, which can disrupt their developing neuro-endocrine-immune response through prolonged stress and cortisol activation [9,15,17].…”

“…The World Economic Forum estimates that over half of the economic burden of disease will be accounted for by mental health illnessadding up to more losses than that of cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory illnesses combined [23,24,35]. A variety of interdisciplinary fields ranging from global healthcare to economics are gaining more insight to the larger consequences of poor mental health, and the costs this can have on the sustainable development of a given population [11,19,26,36]. In recognizing these associations between mental health and the environment, addressing mental health in FCAS is often exceptionally complex and requires a high degree of local service provider coordination, cross-sectoral project tailoring at community levels, and a significant amount of accountability and monitoring throughout.…”