Somatic panic-attack equivalents in a community sample of Rwandan widows who survived the 1994 genocide

Abstract

The present study is the first to attempt to determine rates of panic attacks, especially 'somatically focused' panic attacks, panic disorder, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression levels in a population of Rwandans traumatized by the 1994 genocide. The following measures were utilized: the Rwandan Panic-Disorder Survey (RPDS); the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ); and the PTSD Checklist (PCL). Forty of 100 Rwandan widows suffered somatically focused panic attacks during the previous 4 weeks. Thirtyfive (87%) of those having panic attacks suffered panic disorder, making the rate of panic disorder for the entire sample 35%. Rwandan widows with panic attacks had greater psychopathology on all measures. Somatically focused panic-attack subtypes seem to constitute a key response to trauma in the Rwandan population. Future studies of traumatized non-Western populations should carefully assess not only somatoform disorder but also somatically focused panic attacks.

Healing, Reconciliation, Forgiving and the Prevention of Violence after Genocide or Mass Killing: An Intervention and Its Experimental Evaluation in Rwanda

“…The HTQ has been successfully used in the past with Cambodian refugees, Bosnian war survivors, and trauma survivors in Africa and Latin America (Basoglu, Jaranson, Mollica, & Kastrup, 2001). One of us (AH) had previously translated the HTQ into Kinyarwanda and used it in research in Rwanda (Hagengimana, Hinton, Bird, Pollack, & Pitman, 2003).…”

What Do We Know About the Effects of Crime on Victims?

“…The experience of the International Red Cross and other major relief agencies is that, after provision of the basic necessities (food, shelter, medical attention), the needs of victims in conflicts and after (man-made) disasters centre around demands for compensation, as symbolic recognition of the ways in which they have suffered (Shapland, 1990b ). Hagengimana et al (2003) have attempted to determine PTSD levels in a community sample of Rwandan widows who survived the 1994 genocide. They 200 cite other studies documenting an extreme level of trauma exposure suggestive ofPTSD (79% in children-Dyregrov eta/., 2000) or severe mental disorder (50% amongst refugees in camps-de Jong eta/., 2000).…”

A randomized trial of a reconciliation workshop with and without PTSD psychoeducation in Burundian sample

“…Rwanda and Burundi, two neighboring sub-Saharan countries sharing cultural and linguistic origins as well as recent histories of mass violence, have been the location of several recent studies exploring traumatic stress presentation, prevalence, and treatment (Hagengimana et al, 2003;Schaal & Elbert, 2006;Sezibera et al, 2009;Yeomans, Herbert, & Forman, 2008). Hagengimana and Hinton (2009) offer a detailed account of Rwandan response to trauma known as Ihahamuka.…”