MENTAL DISORDER AMONG REFUGEES AND THE IMPACT OF PERSECUTION AND EXILE - SOME FINDINGS FROM AN OUTPATIENT POPULATION

Background. Refugees have long been considered at risk for mental diso rder. We sought to characterise this risk in an out-patient refugee sa mple by analysing the relationship between psychiatric symptoms and dy sfunction, and between symptoms and the socio-demographic background a nd stressors specific to this refugee sample. Method. A consecutive sa mple of 231 refugee patients referred to the psychiatric out-patient u nit at the Psychosocial Centre fat Refugees, University of Oslo, was e xamined with a semistructured interview guide, Brief Psychiatric Ratin g Scare (BPRS), Hopkins Symptom Check-List (HSCL-25) and a check-list for post-traumatic symptoms (PTSS-10). Global Assessment of Function ( GAF) scores were obtained; and the data were analysed using nine predi ctor variables. Results. It was found that 46.6% of the patients had a post-traumatic stress disorder according to the criteria for DSM-III- R as the main diagnosis, while the mean GAF score for the patients was 57.3. Analysis of the GAF and BPRS data did not reveal any predictor of psychotic behaviour. However, torture emerged as an important predi ctor of emotional withdrawal/retardation. Also age, gender and no empl oyment or education predicted for anxiety/depression, while refugee st atus and no employment or school predicted for hostility/aggression. C onclusions. The results confirm earlier findings that refugees constit ute a population at risk for mental disorder. Past traumatic stressors and current existence in exile constitute independent risk factors. H owever, stressors other than those discussed here appear to be importa nt also, particularly with regard to psychotic symptoms.