Traumatic life events and severity of posttraumatic stress disorder among Syrian refugees residing in a camp in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify types and number of traumatic experiences and to determine the predictors of severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Syrian refugees who were residing in a camp in Turkey. Face-to-face psychiatric interviews were carried out with 342 participants to make a diagnosis of PTSD according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) diagnostic criteria. A traumatic events list was administered to screen Criterion A traumatic experiences, and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) was administered to assess the severity of PTSD. The prevalence of PTSD was 31.0% (n = 106). Among 86.8% of the refugees with PTSD, the CAPS score was at the level of severe and above. Female gender, total number of traumatic events, and age predicted the PTSD symptom severity. Married young women were the most affected group and violent loss of family members was the most frequent type of trauma among them. Given that the vast majority of Syrian refugees have already settled down in various towns of the country, those who were residing in camps possibly constituted an especially fragile subgroup. The participants represented a group with an extreme level of mass traumatization. Both future research and psychosocial services should address those with broken families as a potentially fragile subgroup among refugees.