The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire: Adapting a Cross-Cultural Instrument for Measuring Torture, Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Iraqi Refugees

Marwa Shoeb, Harvey Weinstein and Richard Mollica
Additional contact information
Marwa Shoeb: University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA, marwa.shoeb@ucsf.edu
Harvey Weinstein: Human Rights Center and Clinical Professor, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Richard Mollica: Department of Psychiatry Massachusetts General Hospital, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2007, vol. 53, issue 5, 447-463

Abstract: Background: Mental health assessments in post-conflict zones have relied heavily on Western psychiatric scales. Yet, a strict dependence on the paradigms of Western psychiatry risks inappropriately prioritizing syndromes, such as PTSD, which, however important, are eclipsed by local concerns. Material and discussion: In Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest population of Iraqi refugees in the United States, 60 Iraqi refugee life stories were collected in order to adapt the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) to the Iraqi context. Conclusion: The methodology described proved to be a useful approach to developing a trauma measure that is culturally grounded in a multi-dimensional model of mental health.

Keywords: posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ); Mental Helath Assessment; Iraq; refugees (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764007078362 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:53:y:2007:i:5:p:447-463

DOI: 10.1177/0020764007078362

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().