Asielzoekers en vluchtelingen met een verblijfsvergunning hebben een hoger risico op ongunstige zwangerschapsuitkomsten, bepaalde chronische ziekten en psychische problemen dan andere inwoners van Nederland. De verhoogde risico’s hebben te maken met hun achtergrond en de omstandigheden in het gastland. In dit proefschrift staan aanbevelingen om de gezondheid van asielzoekers en vluchtelingen te verbeteren.

Research increasingly indicates that prototypical trajectories of resilience, recovery, delayed, and chronic distress characterize reactions to acute adversity. However, trajectory research has been limited by the practical and methodological difficulties of obtaining pre-event and longitudinal data. In two studies, we employed a novel method in which trained interviewers provided a graphical depiction of prototypical stress trajectories to participants and asked them to select the one that best described their experience.

Memories that are recalled while working memory (WM) is taxed, e.g., by making eye movements (EM), become blurred during the recall + EM and later recall, without EM. This may help to explain the effects of Eye Movement and Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in which patients make EM during trauma recall.

This thesis originates from an interest to understand more about pathological dissociative presentations in Uganda, as a way of addressing traumatic stress and other adverse events within a cultural and social-political context