Posted at https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/apa/65642
Vast majority experienced separation anxiety
by DeeAnn Visk PhD
May 28, 2017
SAN DIEGO — Syrian refugee children living in the U.S. reported high levels of anxiety, according to research presented at the American Psychiatric Association meeting.
Based on self-reported test scores, more than half of children had a probable anxiety diagnosis, and more than 80% had probable separation anxiety, Arash Javanbakht, MD, director of stress, trauma, and anxiety research at Wayne State University in Detroit, reported during a poster session here.
Additionally, in analyses accounting for clustering, child anxiety was associated with higher maternal PTSD Checklist score, a measure of trauma symptoms severity (P=0.05), he reported.
“This study gives our fellow clinicians a sense of the mental health issues facing child refugees,” Javanbakht told MedPage Today.
He explained that previous studies on the mental health of refugees now living in the U.S. have mostly focused on adults. As part of a larger study on Syrian refugees in the U.S., “our poster presented the design and preliminary data on the first 59 children screened. We currently have information on almost 500 refugees.”
Once a refugee arrives in the U.S., they are required to be screened for contagious diseases. In southeastern Michigan, the Arab-American and Chaldean Council provides this service. After the physical health screening was done, a bilingual and bicultural team introduced themselves, explained the study, obtained consent, and assisted the refugees in completing questionnaires that screened for mental distress. In addition to the questionnaires, saliva and hair sample were also taken for future studies looking at biological markers of trauma.
More than 90% of the Syrian refugees (who came from 20 different families) agreed to participate in the study. The PTSD Checklist was used for adults, and the Screen for Child Anxiety Disorder (SCARED) was used for children along with other measures. The 59 children were between the ages of 6 and 17, with an average age of approximately 11.
The study found 61% of the children had probable anxiety and 85% had probable separation anxiety. Moreover, higher maternal posttraumatic stress score and probable PTSD were both associated with higher anxiety scores in their children. The finding of high levels of anxiety was corroborated by the nurse supervising the research assistants during the mental health screening, Javanbakht said.
This study highlights the impact on children of the Syrian civil war and the need for interventions, he concluded. Knowing the challenges facing these refugees will allow mental healthcare workers to improve children’s lives in a timely manner, he said.
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