Changes in prevalence of mental disorders among internally displaced persons in central Sudan: a 1-year follow-up study.
IDPs
Sudan
mental disorders
mental distress
Journal
Global mental health (Cambridge, England)
ISSN: 2054-4251
Titre abrégé: Glob Ment Health (Camb)
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101659641
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2020
2020
Historique:
received:
14
06
2018
revised:
14
07
2020
accepted:
03
08
2020
entrez:
23
9
2020
pubmed:
24
9
2020
medline:
24
9
2020
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Sudan has one of the largest numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world, estimated at five million. The main cause of displacement was the civil war. Attention to the health and in particular the mental health of IDPs has been lacking. That includes limited population longitudinal data describing the "natural" fluctuations of mental morbidity among these groups. The aim of this study is to investigate the level and stability of mental disorders among IDPs over a 1-year period. In this 1-year follow-up of IDPs in two settlement areas in central Sudan, 1549 persons 18 years or older were interviewed twice using the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Trained psychologists collected the data in a random household survey in the selected IDP areas. We found overall high stability among those having and those free of mental disorders in this 1-year follow-up study. There were, however, discernible and statistically significant increases in overall new cases of mental disorders from T1 to T2 as major depression increased by 1.4%, generalized anxiety by 2.8% and social phobia by 1.4%. The study revealed continued high levels and increases of mental disorders over time, although with a pattern of substantial persistence among those initially ill and limited recovery. This might be due to a complex set of factors such as unavailability of mental health services, poverty, low educational level and social exclusion.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Sudan has one of the largest numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world, estimated at five million. The main cause of displacement was the civil war. Attention to the health and in particular the mental health of IDPs has been lacking. That includes limited population longitudinal data describing the "natural" fluctuations of mental morbidity among these groups. The aim of this study is to investigate the level and stability of mental disorders among IDPs over a 1-year period.
METHOD
METHODS
In this 1-year follow-up of IDPs in two settlement areas in central Sudan, 1549 persons 18 years or older were interviewed twice using the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Trained psychologists collected the data in a random household survey in the selected IDP areas.
RESULTS
RESULTS
We found overall high stability among those having and those free of mental disorders in this 1-year follow-up study. There were, however, discernible and statistically significant increases in overall new cases of mental disorders from T1 to T2 as major depression increased by 1.4%, generalized anxiety by 2.8% and social phobia by 1.4%.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSIONS
The study revealed continued high levels and increases of mental disorders over time, although with a pattern of substantial persistence among those initially ill and limited recovery. This might be due to a complex set of factors such as unavailability of mental health services, poverty, low educational level and social exclusion.
Identifiants
pubmed: 32963796
doi: 10.1017/gmh.2020.16
pmc: PMC7490769
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Pagination
e24Informations de copyright
© The Author(s) 2020.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors declared that they have no competing interest. The research protocol was approved by the Regional Committee for Medical Health Research Ethics (REK) in Norway (No S-08537a, 2008/15049) and the Federal Ministry of Health in Sudan. Unfortunately, the intervention faced major difficulties, i.e. no psychiatric medication was available at PHC level and the mental health data set was absent from the national registry. Thus, we considered the intervention not to be powerful enough to have any impact on the prevalence, the persistence of which the longitudinal data describes, and reinforces the challenges of applying proven methods in the practical realities of this context.
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