Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 11/2018

Open Access 01-11-2018 | OriginalPaper

Mental health in Syrian children with a focus on post-traumatic stress: a cross-sectional study from Syrian schools

Authors: Jon Davis Perkins, Maiss Ajeeb, Lina Fadel, Ghassan Saleh

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 11/2018

Login to get access

Abstract

Purpose

Studies show that conflict can negatively affect psychological health. The Syrian crisis is 8 years old and yet little is known about the impact of the conflict on the well-being of Syrians who remain. This gap was addressed by conducting an empirical study on the mental health burden of Syrian children in two areas of the country.

Methods

492 children between 8 and 15 years were randomly selected from schools in Damascus and Latakia. The incidence of psychological disorder symptoms was measured using self-report screening instruments, the Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-8) and the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS-25). Simultaneously, sociodemographic and traumatic event information was collected. Binary logistic regression was used to identify factors that influence the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

Results

In our sample, 50.2% of students were internally displaced and 32.1% reported a negative experience. 60.5% of those tested had at least one probable psychological disorder with PTSD the most common (35.1%), followed by depression (32.0%), and anxiety (29.5%). Binary logistic regression indicated that PTSD symptoms were predicted by: living in Damascus [odds ratio (OR) 2.36, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.51–3.69], being female (1.54, 1.02–2.34), having depression and anxiety (2.55, 1.48–4.40), and the negative experiences; displacement and daily warzone exposure (1.84, 1.02–3.30 and 2.67, 1.08–6.60).

Conclusions

Syrian children are experiencing traumatic events and war-associated daily stresses that are hugely impacting psychological well-being. Our data offer guidance for mental health providers regarding risk factors and highlights the use of the school system to reach suffering children.
Literature
1.
Saxena S, Thornicroft G, Knapp M, Whiteford H (2007) Resources for mental health: scarcity, inequity, and inefficiency. Lancet 370(9590):878–889CrossRef
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sharara SL, Kanj SS (2014) War and infectious diseases: challenges of the Syrian civil war. PLoS Pathog 10(10):e1004438CrossRef
6.
7.
Ben Taleb Z, Bahelah R, Fouad FM, Coutts A, Wilcox M, Maziak W (2015) Syria: health in a country undergoing tragic transition. Int J Public Health 60(Suppl 1):S63–S72CrossRef
8.
Tol WA, Barbui C, Galappatti A, Silove D, Betancourt TS, Souza R et al (2011) Mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian settings: linking practice and research. Lancet 378(9802):1581–1591CrossRef
9.
Coutts A, Fouad FM, Abbara A, Sibai AM, Sahloul Z, Blanchet K (2015) Responding to the Syrian health crisis: the need for data and research. Lancet Respir Med 3(3):e8–e9CrossRef
10.
Bashour H (2015) Let’s not forget the health of the Syrians within their own country. Am J Public Health 105(12):2407–2408CrossRef
11.
12.
Soykoek S, Mall V, Nehring I, Henningsen P, Aberl S (2017) Post-traumatic stress disorder in Syrian children of a German refugee camp. Lancet 389(10072):903–904CrossRef
13.
Miller KE, Rasmussen A (2014) War experiences, daily stressors and mental health five years on: elaborations and future directions. Intervention 12:33–42CrossRef
14.
Perrin S, Meiser-Stedman R, Smith P (2005) The Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES): validity as a screening instrument for PTSD. Behav Cogn Psychother 33(4):487–498CrossRef
15.
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edn. American Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington
16.
Thabet AA, Abu Tawahina A, El Sarraj E, Vostanis P (2008) Exposure to war trauma and PTSD among parents and children in the Gaza strip. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 17(4):191–199CrossRef
17.
18.
Stevanovic D, Bagheri Z, Atilola O, Vostanis P, Stupar D, Moreira P et al (2017) Cross-cultural measurement invariance of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale across eleven world-wide societies. Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci 26(4):430–440CrossRef
19.
IBM Corp. Released. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0. 2013. IBM Corp, Armonk
20.
21.
Claycomb MA, Charak R, Kaplow J, Layne CM, Pynoos R, Elhai JD (2016) Persistent complex bereavement disorder symptom domains relate differentially to PTSD and depression: a study of war-exposed Bosnian adolescents. J Abnorm Child Psychol 44(7):1361–1373CrossRef
22.
Polanczyk GV, Salum GA, Sugaya LS, Caye A, Rohde LA (2015) Annual Research Review: A meta-analysis of the worldwide prevalence of mental disorders in children and adolescents. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 56(3):345–365CrossRef
23.
Ugurlu N, Akca L, Acarturk C (2016) An art therapy intervention for symptoms of post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety among Syrian refugee children. Vulnerable Child Youth Stud 11(2):89–102CrossRef
24.
Betancourt TS, Kahn KT (2008) The mental health of children affected by armed conflict: protective processes and pathways to resilience. Int Rev Psychiatry 20(3):317–328CrossRef
25.
Thabet AAM, Vostanis P (1999) Post-traumatic stress reactions in children of war. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 40(3):385–391CrossRef
26.
Otto MW, Henin A, Hirshfeld-Becker DR, Pollack MH, Biederman J, Rosenbaum JF (2007) Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms following media exposure to tragic events: impact of 9/11 on children at risk for anxiety disorders. J Anxiety Disord 21(7):888–902CrossRef
27.
28.
29.
Betancourt TS, Borisova II, de la Soudière M, Williamson J (2011) Sierra Leone’s child soldiers: war exposures and mental health problems by gender. J Adolesc Health 49(1):21–28CrossRef
30.
Costello EJ, Erkanli A, Angold A (2006) Is there an epidemic of child or adolescent depression? J Child Psychol Psychiatry 47(12):1263–71
31.
Lonigan CJ, Shannon MP, Taylor CM, Finch A, Sallee FR (1994) Children exposed to disaster: II. Risk factors for the development of post-traumatic symptomatology. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 33(1):94–105CrossRef
32.
Rosenfield S, Mouzon D (2013) Gender and mental health. In: Aneshensel CS, Phelan JC, Bierman A (eds). Handbooks of sociology and social research. Handbook of the sociology of mental health, 2nd edn. Springer Science and Business Media, New York, pp 277–296CrossRef
33.
Spinhoven P, Penninx BW, van Hemert AM, de Rooij M, Elzinga BM (2014) Comorbidity of PTSD in anxiety and depressive disorders: prevalence and shared risk factors. Child Abuse Negl 38(8):1320–1330CrossRef
34.
Panter-Brick C, Eggerman M, Gonzalez V, Safdar S (2009) Violence, suffering, and mental health in Afghanistan: a school-based survey. Lancet 374(9692):807–816CrossRef
35.
36.
Quosh C (2011) Takamol: multi-professional capacity building in order to strengthen the psychosocial and mental health sector in response to refugee crises in Syria. Intervention 9(3):249–264
Metadata
Title
Mental health in Syrian children with a focus on post-traumatic stress: a cross-sectional study from Syrian schools
Authors
Jon Davis Perkins
Maiss Ajeeb
Lina Fadel
Ghassan Saleh
Publication date
01-11-2018
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 11/2018
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-018-1573-3

Other articles of this Issue 11/2018

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 11/2018 Go to the issue

Original Paper

Community pharmacists’ experiences and people at risk of suicide in Canada and Australia: a thematic analysis

Original Paper

Prevalence rates, reporting, and psychosocial correlates of stalking victimization: results from a three-sample cross-sectional study

Original Paper

Confidence and attitudes of pharmacy students towards suicidal crises: patient simulation using people with a lived experience

Original Paper

Profiles of childhood trauma and psychopathology: US National Epidemiologic Survey

Invited Review

Mild cognitive impairment and progression to dementia in people with diabetes, prediabetes and metabolic syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Original Paper

Patterns of concordances in mhGAP-IG screening and DSM-IV/ICD10 diagnoses by trained community service providers in Kenya: a pilot cross-sectional study