Journal
JOURNAL OF IMMIGRANT AND MINORITY HEALTH
Volume 16, Issue 6, Pages 1247-1261Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10903-013-9861-1
Keywords
Afghan; Depression; Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Qualitative; Refugee; Trauma
Categories
Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [K01 MH077732, R25 MH080916, K01 MH077732-01A1] Funding Source: Medline
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Mental health problems disproportionately affect Afghan refugees and asylum seekers who continue to seek international protection with prolonged exposure to war. We performed a systematic review aimed at synthesizing peer-reviewed literature pertaining to mental health problems among Afghans resettled in industrialized nations. We used five databases to identify studies published between 1979 and 2013 that provided data on distress levels, and subjective experiences with distress. Seventeen studies met our inclusion criteria consisting of 1 mixed-method, 7 qualitative, and 9 quantitative studies. Themes from our qualitative synthesis described antecedents for distress being rooted in cultural conflicts and loss, and also described unique coping mechanisms. Quantitative findings indicated moderate to high prevalence of depressive and posttraumatic symptomatology. These findings support the need for continued mental health research with Afghans that accounts for: distress among newly resettled groups, professional help-seeking utilization patterns, and also culturally relevant strategies for mitigating distress and engaging Afghans in research.
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