PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSES IN HOSPITALIZED ADOLESCENT AND ADULT ETHIOPIAN IMMIGRANTS IN ISRAEL

In 1984-85 Operation Moses brought a mass immigration of Jewish Ethiop ians to Israel. Many of these immigrants were children and adolescents who came on their own having left their families behind. Since that t ime the adolescent department at the Geha Psychiatric Hospital has had the major responsibility of caring for those Ethiopian adolescents wh o required psychiatric hospitalization. The present study compares the diagnoses and reasons for admission of Ethiopian adolescents in Israe l with those of Ethiopian adults and Israeli adolescents. The results of this comparison show that Ethiopian adolescents in hospital had sig nificantly higher rates of dissociative disorders than the other two g roups and significantly lower rates of the major functional psychoses than Ethiopian adults and Israeli adolescents. In addition the Ethiopi an adolescents had relatively low levels of nonspecific depressive sym ptoms and anxiety symptoms and were hospitalized for significantly sho rter periods of time than the other two groups.