A new generation: how refugee trauma affects parenting and child development

Elisa van Ee’s dissertation A New Generation: How refugee trauma affects parenting and child development is well written, important and interesting to read. The dissertation focuses on the relationship between the traumatization of refugee parents and the impact traumatization has on their non-traumatized children.

Van Ee is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist affiliated with Centrum 45, the Dutch national institute for specialist diagnostics and treatment of psycho-trauma resulting from persecution, war and violence.

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Symptoms, Quality of Life and level of functioning of traumatized refugees at Psychiatric Trauma Clinic in Copenhagen

Objective: To characterize physical and mental health in trauma exposed refugees by describing a population of patients with regard to background, mental health history and current health problems; and to identify pre- and post-migratory predictors of mental health.

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Psychotherapy with traumatised refugees – the design of a randomised clinical trial

There is little evidence as to which kind of psychotherapy is the most effective in the treatment of traumatised refugees. At the Competence Center for Transcultural Psychiatry, a series of clinical trials have been conducted since 2008. The first results are pending publication. The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the challenges in adapting Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to the treatment of traumatised refugees, as well as describe a randomised clinical trial designed to test two such adaptations.

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The Effectiveness of Art Therapy in the Treatment of Traumatized Adults: A Systematic Review on Art Therapy and Trauma

Art therapy has often been applied in the treatment of traumatized adults, and good results in clinical practice have been reported. However, although art therapy experts underline these benefits, the effectiveness of art therapy in trauma treatment has not been established by systematic review. The aim of this systematic review is to identify and evaluate empirical evidence of the effectiveness of art therapy for trauma treatment. As a result of the systematic review, six controlled, comparative studies on art therapy for trauma in adult patients were found.

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A Transdiagnostic Community-Based Mental Health Treatment for Comorbid Disorders: Development and Outcomes of a Randomized Controlled Trial among Burmese Refugees in Thailand

Background: Existing studies of mental health interventions in low-resource settings have employed highly structured interventions delivered by non-professionals that typically do not vary by client. Given high comorbidity among mental health problems and implementation challenges with scaling up multiple structured evidence-based treatments (EBTs), a transdiagnostic treatment could provide an additional option for approaching community-based treatment of mental health problems.

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Witnessing images of extreme violence: a psychological study of journalists in the newsroom

Objective: User Generated Content - photos and videos submitted to newsrooms by the public - has become a prominent source of information for news organisations. Journalists working with uncensored material can frequently witness disturbing images for prolonged periods. How this might affect their psychological health is not known and it is the focus of this study.

Design: Descriptive, exploratory.

Setting: The newsrooms of three international news organisations.

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Concept mapping as a promising method to bring practice into science

Objective: Concept mapping is a method for developing a conceptual framework of a
complex topic for use as a guide to evaluation or planning. In concept mapping, thoughts
and ideas are represented in the form of a picture or map, the content of which is determined
by a group of stakeholders. This study aimed to explore the suitability of this
method as a tool to integrate practical knowledge with scientific knowledge in order to
improve theory development as a sound basis for practical decision-making.

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In search of links between social capital, mental health and sociotherapy: a longitudinal study in Rwanda

To date, reviews show inconclusive results on the association between social capital and mental health. Evidence that social capital can intentionally be promoted is also scarce. Promotion of social capital may impact post-conflict recovery through both increased social cohesion and better mental health. However, studies on community interventions and social capital have mostly relied on cross-sectional study designs.

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Cytokine production as a putative biological mechanism underlying stress sensitization in high combat exposed soldiers

Objective: Combat stress exposed soldiers may respond to post-deployment stressful life events (SLE) with increases in symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), consistent with a model of stress sensitization. Several lines of research point to sensitization as a model to describe the relations between exposure to traumatic events, subsequent SLE, and symptoms of PTSD. Based on previous findings we hypothesized that immune activation, measured as a high in vitro capacity of leukocytes to produce cytokines upon stimulation, underlies stress sensitization.

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Warring Identities: Identity Conflict and the Mental Distress of American Veterans of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Drawing from 26 life story interviews of recent American veterans, this paper analyzes the identity struggle faced by soldiers returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and reentering the civilian world. Instead of examining veterans’ problems as a consequence of post-combat mental illnesses such as PTSD and major depression, we analyze the contrast between the participants’ identities as soldiers and their identities as civilians.

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