Psychiatric disorders among a sample of internally displaced persons in South Darfur

Mahmoud M Elhabiby, Doaa N Radwan, Tarek A Okasha and Eman D El-Desouky

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2015, vol. 61, issue 4, 358-362

Abstract: Background: The violent armed conflict in Darfur has been ongoing for years getting the attention of human rights activists and mental health professionals. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess psychiatric disorders in a sample of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in South Darfur. Method: A cross-sectional observational study, as a part of the ‘Darfur Campaign’ organized by Arab Federation of Psychiatrists, assessing psychiatric disorders in a sample of internally displaced women using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I) (clinical version). Results: Up to 25.7% of participants had lost a close family member or more in the violent clashes. Psychiatric diagnoses were found in 62.2% of the participants. The most frequently reported was post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reaching 14.9%, followed by depression 13.5% (among which 2.7% with psychotic features), while comorbid PTSD and depression reached 8.1% of participants. Patients with psychiatric diagnoses had an older age (36.6 years) ( p  = .024). Suffering from a psychiatric disorder was found to be associated with losing a family member in the conflict ( p  = .015), being 35.6% in patients with psychiatric diagnoses compared to 10.3% in those without losing a family member in the conflict (odds ratio (OR) = 4.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.25–18.28). Conclusions: This study used a standardized tool for diagnosing psychiatric morbidity among refugees in Darfur to give as much as possible an actual description of the problems and psychiatric morbidity caused by human-made disasters. This study can help to lead to a more detailed and specific mental health service program much needed by this population.

Keywords: Post-traumatic stress disorder; depression; internally displaced persons; psychiatric disorders; mental health; Darfur (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:61:y:2015:i:4:p:358-362

DOI: 10.1177/0020764014547061

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