[Psychiatric disorders in refugees and asylum seekers: psychological trauma as a cause?]

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder was diagnosed in two patients, men aged 26 and 29, an asylum seeker from the Middle East and a refugee from former Yugoslavia respectively. They had experienced severe psychotraumatic events. They were referred to a clinic for traumatised refugees and asylum seekers. Their psychiatric disturbances did not fit posttraumatic stress disorder, however. The former suffered from a schizophrenic disorder, the latter from psychosis and depression based on alcohol dependence. Growing awareness of the high prevalence of traumatic experiences in the population leads to a contextual shift in therapists regarding their understanding of the short and long term effects of traumatization in their patients. Exclusive focus on the traumatic history, however, biases the diagnostic process and could lead to wrong conclusions about a causal relationship between traumatic experiences and the psychopathology observed in the patient. When treating asylum seekers or refugees the risk of jumping to this false conclusion is even higher, partially due to cultural and language barriers.