Psychiatry

Diagnosing posttraumatic stress disorder in multicultural patients in a Stockholm psychiatric clinic

Ekblad S., Roth G. (1997). Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 185:102-107.

This study tested the assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associated symptoms in a multicultural immigrant/refugee population at a psychiatric out-patient clinic. The pilot study included volunteer patients who were randomly assigned to an intervention group (N = 33), who received SCID diagnosis and a battery of life event questionnaires, and a referent group (N = 30), who received the standard diagnostic program. All were followed-up for 1 year.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, and Somatic Symptoms in U.S. Mien Patients

Moore L.J., Boehlein J.K. (1991). Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 179:728-733.

This report describes treatment over a period of 6 years of Mien refugees from highland Laos in the Indochinese Psychiatric Program of the Oregon Health Sciences University (Portland, OR). The medical and psychiatric problems of 84 patients were presented through somatic symptoms such as headache, dizziness, or musculoskeletal pain. Primary care medical problems were identified and treated, with the major focus on the two most common psychiatric diagnoses: major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Refugee trauma versus torture trauma: a retrospective controlled cohort study of Tibetan refugees

Holtz T.H. (1998). Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 186(1):24-34.

A retrospective cohort study of 35 refugee Tibetan nuns and lay students who were arrested and tortured in Tibet matched with 35 controls who were not arrested or tortured was carried out in India. Subjects were administered the Hopkins Checklist-25, evaluating anxiety symptoms, affective disturbances, somatic complaints, and social impairment. The prevalence of symptom scores in the clinical range for both cohorts was 41.4% for anxiety symptoms and 14.3% for depressive symptoms.

Rheumatological Disorders and Somatization in U.S. Mien and Lao Refugees with Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Moore, L., Sager, D., Keopraseuth, K., Chao, L., Riley, C., and Robinson, E. (2001). Rheumatological Disorders and Somatization in U.S. Mien and Lao Refugees with Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Cross-Cultural Comparison. Transcultural Psychiatry, 38(4), 481.
 
Summary by CVT Intern David Heuer
As the title suggests, this study involved the relationship between depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Mien and Lao refugees living in America.

Trauma experiences, posttraumatic stress, dissociation, and depression in Cambodian refugees

This study, of Cambodian refugees who have been resettled in the United States, examines the levels of trauma and psychiatric symptoms and to determine the relationship between the amount of trauma experienced and subsequent psychiatric symptoms. Subjects experienced multiple and severe traumas and showed high levels of all symptoms measured. Forty-three (86%) of the subjects met DSM-III-R criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder, 48 (96%) had high dissociation scores, and 40 (80%) could be classified as suffering from clinical depression.