Ptsd, Depression, and Health Status in Lebanese Civilians Exposed to a Church Explosion

Abstract

The results suggest that PTSD, depression, and health status deterioration in trauma victims may persist over time. Resources such as social support can help attenuate the symptoms of those at a higher risk.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Dogonahawa and Zawan, North-Central Nigeria, Four-Years after Communal Violence: Prevalence and Risk Factors Prevalence of and risk factors for PTSD

“…However, the difficulty in comparing studies of different populations exposed to armed-conflict has to be emphasized because of variability in factors such as level of trauma exposure; time elapsed between exposure and diagnosis, other methodological differences and cultural factors. This study revealed that, being a female rather than a male was a common significant predictor for PTSD in both groups, which is in consonant with the findings of other previous studies that reported same [4,8,10] . In support of this, it has been documented that women use dissociative defense mechanism more than men and also have more negative self-schemas and world-schemas than men following exposure to traumatic events.…”

“…In particular, the prevalence of PTSD found among the post conflict survivors (55.5%) was similar to the 24.8-54% current prevalence found among post conflict survivors in Rwanda [11] , Lebanon [8] , Liberia [9] and Uganda [10] , but higher than the 10-15.1% found in Northern-Ireland [6] , and Turkey [7] , following exposure to mass violence in these countries. Similarly, the rate in the group not exposed to conflict was close to the 9.4% prevalence of current PTSD reported among the Israeli general population [5] .…”

“…Among the trauma victims, having low individual monthly income and in particular, having estimated individual monthly income below N20, 000.00 was found to be one of the strongest demographic predictors for PTSD. Studies in Northern Ireland [6] and Lebanon [8] revealed that the coincidence of violence and poverty increased the risk of PTSD. This is presumed to be the same in Nigeria which is a low income country with majority of its population living in rural areas and indeed, below poverty line.…”

“…On the other hand, the results of studies conducted among post-conflict populations in Turkey [6] , Northern Ireland [7] , Lebanon [8] , Liberia [9] , Northern Uganda [10] , Rwanda [11] , and indeed Nigeria [12][13][14] have demonstrated a variously high prevalence of Post-traumatic stress disorder in the range of 10-60%. Correlates of PTSD found in these studies include gender, marital status, and income level.…”

Risk Factors for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Haitian Students

“…Also, financial difficulties have already been identified in the literature as a stable risk factor for PTSD (Chou et al, 2007;Farhood & Noureddine, 2003;Galea, Tracy, Norris, & Coffey, 2008). In the student body, those who did not face financial difficulties were mainly in the lower levels of the disorder, while those who had to face important changes in their monthly income presented a higher prevalence of PTSD symptoms.…”