PSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS IN AN AFGHAN VILLAGE
Abstract
Background: The rates of psychiatric disorders might be very high in Afghanistan. The countryhas faced many years of war and violence and therefore this is hardly surprising. We aredescribing the results of a community survey conducted by clinicians in a small village of EasternAfghanistan. This study was carried out to measure prevalence of psychiatric disorders among thepeople living in a small village in the Nangerhar, Afghanistan. We also wanted to measure theassociated demographic variables. Methods: A structured interview schedule, Mini Internationalneuropsychiatry Interview Schedule (MINI), was used to measure psychiatric morbidity. Results:More than 70% of the population fulfilled criteria for some form of mental illness. Conclusions:The rates of mental health problems are very high in Afghanistan. Any efforts to rebuild this wartorn country should take sufficient measures in building mental health services with specialemphasis on mental health problems.Keywords: Violence, Trauma, Psychiatric disorders, warReferences
Andreasen NC. Acute and Delayed Posttraumatic Stress
Disorders: A History and Some Issues. Am J Psychiatry
;161:1321-3.
Abenheim L, Dab W, Sami LR. Study of civilian victims of
terrorist attacks (France 1982-1987) J Clin Epidemiol
;45:103-9.
Pfefferbaum B, North CS, Flynn BW. The emotional impact
of injury following an international terrorist incident. Public
Health Reviews 2001;29:271-80.
de Jong JTVM, Kamproe IH, Van Ommeren M. Common
Mental Disorders in Post Conflict Setting. Lancet
;361:2128
Cardozo BL, Bilukha OO, Crawford CAG, Shaikh I, Wolfe
M I , Gerber M L, et al. Mental Health, Social functioning
and disability in post war Afghanistan. JAMA 2004;292:575-
Pham PN, Weinstein HM, Longma T. Trauma and PTSD
symptoms in Rwanda: Implications for attitude toward justice
and reconciliation JAMA 2004;292:602-13
Rasekh Z, Bauer HM, Manos MM, Iacopino V. Health and
human rights in Afghanistan. JAMA 1998;280(5):449-55.
Sheehan DV, Lecrubier Y, Sheehan KH, Amorim P, Janavs
J, Weiller E, et al. Mini International Neuropsychiatric
Interview (M.I.N.I.): the development and validation of a
structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM-IV and
ICD-10. J Clin Psychiatry 1998;59 Suppl 20:22-33
Issue
Section
License
Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL which means that all content is FREELY available without charge to all users whether registered with the journal or not. The work published by J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad is licensed and distributed under the creative commons License CC BY ND Attribution-NoDerivs. Material printed in this journal is OPEN to access, and are FREE for use in academic and research work with proper citation. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. The Editorial Board of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not reflect the opinion/policy of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad or the Editorial Board.
USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
AUTHORS retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.eu, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and any other professional or academic networking site.
