Dance/Movement therapy and resilience building with female asylum seekers and refugees : a phenomenological practice based research

This phenomenological study aims to better understand the applicability of Dance/Movement therapy for traumatised women asylum seekers and refugees. It explores if and how bodily engagement could support an existing resilience based treatment model employed at a centre for transcultural psychiatry in the Netherlands. The sessions focused on moving the body and included the use of music, props, mirroring techniques, body awareness and movement exploration exercises. Participation in the sessions was associated with self-reported alleviation of stress and addressed vulnerabilities.

Read more

Objectification and abjectification of migrants : reflections to help guide psychosocial workers

This is a personal reflection concerning the migration crisis in Europe and its political repercussions on migration policies around the globe. Instead of the usual focus on analyses of needs, this article examines a variety of philosophical categories, such as objectification, abjectification as well as political paradigms, including the risk management approach to governance.

Read more

Child maltreatment, revictimization and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among adults in a community sample

Background/Objective: Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been associated with revictimization and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, this relation is hardly examined in South European countries, and in community samples. We tested these associations in a convenience sample of 1,200 Portuguese adults in the community. Method: Data were collected using self-report questionnaires, the Post Traumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS) and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form (CTQ-SF).

Read more

Development and Evaluation of a Diversity-Oriented Competence Training for the Treatment of Depressive Disorders.

Studies in Europe indicate that some ethnic minorities have higher rates of mental disorders and less favorable treatment outcomes than their counterparts from majority groups. To date, efforts regarding training to reduce disparities have mainly focused on ethnocultural competences of therapists, with less attention paid to other aspects of diversity, such as sex/gender and socioeconomic status.

Read more

The assessment of psychopathology among traumatized refugees : measurement invariance of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 across five linguistic groups

Background: Questionnaires are widely used to assess the mental health status of refugees, whereas their construct validity largely remains unexplored.

Objective: This study examined the construct validity of two widely-used instruments for the assessment of PTSD symptoms (Harvard Trauma Questionnaire [HTQ]; 16 items) and symptoms of anxiety and depression (Hopkins Symptom Check list-25 [HSCL-25]; 25 items) among Dutch and refugee patients with different linguistic backgrounds.

Read more

A multilayered psychosocial resilience framework and its implications for community-focused crisis management

The focus of this contribution is on the psychosocial well-being, health, and functioning of communities in the context of major crises. A multilayered psychosocial resilience framework is described, conceptualizing and connecting capacities at individual, community, and society levels. Effective crisis management is strengthening and utilizing these capacities. The community as a resilient, functioning social system depends, almost by definition, on collaboration among government, business, and civil society.

Read more

Oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms, attachment, and PTSD : Results from the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study

The human oxytocin system is implicated in social behavior and stress recovery. Polymorphisms in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) may interact with attachment style to predict stress-related psychopathology like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The objective of this study was to examine independent and interactive effects of the OXTR single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs53576, which has been associated with stress reactivity, support-seeking, and PTSD in prior studies, and attachment style on risk for PTSD in a nationally representative sample of 2163 European-American (EA) U.S.

Read more

Intranasal Oxytocin May Prevent PTSD

Administering a commonly available hormone via a nasal spray could help prevent the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and reduce symptoms in those who already have the condition, results of several clinical studies suggest.

Intranasal oxytocin significantly reduced the likelihood of the development of PTSD among patients in an emergency department (ED) who had a high degree of baseline trauma symptoms, said Miranda Olff, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

 

Read more

Day patient treatment for traumatic grief: preliminary evaluation of a one-year treatment programme for patients with multiple and traumatic losses

Background: Bereaved individuals who have lost a loved one under traumatic circumstances can develop symptoms of Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (PCBD) and/or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This is particularly common in refugees, as they frequently have been confronted with multiple traumatic losses. For patients with severe PTSD and traumatic grief a treatment programme was developed, embedding individual traumatic grief focused therapy in a group-based multidisciplinary day patient treatment programme.

Read more

Narrative Exposure Therapy VS. Present-Centered Therapy with Older Adults : Results from an RCT

Older adults present a growing population in our society and in our mental health system. Among older adults, PTSD is a serious, but frequently hidden psychiatric disorder with various potential trajectories. Elderly patients may have been exposed to multiple traumatic events. Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) was developed to address cumulative traumatic memories and aims at connecting them to context and meaning within an autobiographic narrative. Present Centered Therapy (PCT) targets current stressors with a solution-focused approach.

Read more

Pages