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The prevalence of common mental disorders among Syrian refugees resettled in The Netherlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

M. Patanè ,
P. Cuijpers ,
A. De Graaff ,
R. Farell  and
M. Sijbrandij
M. Patanè
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Clinical, Neuro- And Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam, Netherlands
P. Cuijpers
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Clinical, Neuro- And Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam, Netherlands
A. De Graaff*
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Clinical, Neuro- And Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam, Netherlands
R. Farell
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Clinical, Neuro- And Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam, Netherlands
M. Sijbrandij
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Clinical, Neuro- And Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam, Netherlands
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Refugees are at elevated risk of developing common mental disorders (CMD) as they may have been exposed to stressors and traumatic experiences before, during and after their movement. However, prevalence rates of CMDs among refugees reported across studies vary strongly.

Objectives

To examine the prevalence of CMDs (PTSD, anxiety, depression and somatic disorder) among Syrian refugees in the Netherlands, and the diagnostic accuracy of self-reporting questionnaires in Arabic.

Methods

A sample of N=1339 adult Syrian refugees was randomly selected from the Dutch national population registry. Participants were approached in December 2020-March 2021 to complete questionnaires on symptoms of PTSD (PCL-5), anxiety/depression (HSCL-25), and somatic disorder (SSS-8). After the survey, a sub-sample was invited for a clinical interview using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5) to enquire about the presence or absence of PTSD, anxiety, depression or somatic disorder.

Results

In total, 407 participants (53.6% female, M age=34.2yrs, SD=14.1) completed the survey. The majority (65.9%) arrived in the Netherlands in 2015-2017. Using a cut-off of PCL-5 ³33, 75 participants (18.4%) reported probable PTSD. Using a cut-off of ³1.83 on the HSCL-25 depression subscale and ³1.75 on the anxiety subscale, 153 participants (37.6%) reported depression and 135 (33.2%) reported anxiety, and using a cut-off of ³12.0 on the SSS-8, 121 (29.8%) reported somatic complaints. A sub-sample of 214 participants (52.6%) were followed-up with the SCID-5. Psychometric properties will be presented.

Conclusions

Syrian refugees in the Netherlands are at high risk for the development of a CMD. Implications, strengths and limitations of the study will be discussed.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

RefugeesEpidemiologyCommon mental disordersStructured Clinical Interview
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S219
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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