Post‐traumatic stress disorder and subthreshold post‐traumatic stress disorder in recent male asylum seekers: An expected but overlooked “European” epidemic

Abstract

The literature shows an increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among illegal migrants. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of PTSD, subthreshold PTSD, the degree of disability, and differences in sociodemographic and anamnestic characteristics associated with these clinical conditions in a sample of newly arrived migrants.Two hundred male asylum seekers from West sub-Saharan Africa were evaluated for traumatic life events, PTSD symptoms, and disability through the Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5), the Primary Care PTSD Screen, the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0).The current prevalence of PTSD and subthreshold PTSD was 9.5% and 12.0%, respectively. PTSD and subthreshold PTSD subgroups presented higher WHODAS 2.0 scores and LEC-5 events, an over-representation of individuals with childhood adversities and an excess of premigration psychiatric contacts unrelated to PTSD spectrum disorders and peri-migration offences. Witnessing a traumatic event and disability in understanding and communication predicted both the presence of PTSD symptoms and PTSD status.PTSD spectrum disorders should be considered among the clinical emergencies associated with asylum seeker condition, and targeted interventions also involving the host citizens should be predisposed. K E Y W O R D Smental health, post-traumatic stress, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors in health

Low reliability when determining criterion a for posttraumatic stress disorder from self-report descriptions of traumatic events: The need for transparent methods.

“…The limitations of this study deserve mention. First, our trauma descriptions were specific to a civilian population of undergraduate students and while frequencies of events endorsed were similar to larger undergraduate samples (Pugach et al, 2021), trauma-type frequencies were different when examining samples from other populations (e.g., military veterans [Wisco et al, 2022] or asylum seekers [Sacchetti et al, 2020]). Types of traumatic events could vary as a function of the population studied, which may result in Criterion A being more easily classified.…”

Health status of recently arrived asylum seekers in their host country: results of a cross-sectional observational study

“…We found 4 studies about asylum seekers exclusively (1 in Italy, 1 in Sweden, 2 in Germany). The prevalence of PTSD ranged from 9.5% [ 9 ] to 60.7% [ 10 ], that of depression from 21.3% [ 11 ] to 67.9% [ 10 ] and that of anxiety from 41% [ 12 ] to 59.3% [ 10 ]. The studies in Italy and Sweden were only able to include asylum seekers from a limited geographical area.…”