The following is a collection of resources gathered in 2009-2010 for the project to develop a Psychological First Aid Guide for low and middle income countries. Resources were reviewed to inform the project, and included for their interest and relevance to the theme. We appreciate all of those who have contributed to this body of work and those who shared their resources for this anthology, with a special thanks to suggestions from the World Health Organization, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

This study reviews empirical evidence for Moghaddam’s model “Staircase to Terrorism,” which portrays terrorism as a process of six consecutive steps culminating in terrorism. An extensive literature search, where 2,564 publications on terrorism were screened, resulted in 38 articles which were subject to further analysis. The results showed that while most of the theories and processes linked to Moghaddam’s model are supported by empirical evidence, the proposed transitions between the different steps are not.

Background. A serious life event is likely to shape attributions relating to symptoms experienced afterwards. While they may play an important role in prognosis and seeking care, such perceptions have hardly been studied among survivors of a disaster.

Objective. To investigate the association between self-reported health problems that have been attributed to an extreme life event and the symptoms presented to GPs.

The author describes his experiences as a psychiatrist in East Sri Lanka where he was involved in building mental health and psychosocial services in the context of war and disaster He stresses the necessity of creating patient and family friendly services, and advocates for the principle of distributing basic services over the whole region, instead of providing a highly specialised service that most of the people who need help cannot reach.