Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Youth in Iraq, Short Systemic Reviews

Editorial

Iraq is highly traumatizing country especially after US invasion in 2003, as Iraqi civilians exposed to different kinds of traumatic events including car bombing, gun shots, arrest, kidnaping and different sorts of threaten events [1], that mainly occurred in middle and north governorates. Such traumatic events produce large adverse scale on physical and mental health especially of children and adolescents as they are more vulnerable groups for adverse effects of wars and community violence [2]. One of these serious mental disorders that result from violence exposure is Posttraumatic Disorder (PTSD) [3].

A systemic review was made for articles that describe the PTSD prevalence in Iraq that published in local and international journals in addition to academic fellowship thesis from period 2004-2016.

The findings: high prevalence of PTSD symptoms among Iraqi children and adolescent, a study conducted in Mosul during period from September 2003 to April 2004, in which the researchers found the prevalence of PTSD among children was 10.5% [2]. Other study in 2008 that measured the PTSD among internally displaced people in Erbil documented that 26.5% of youth had symptoms of PTSD [4].

On the hand a study that done in Baghdad in 2010 revealed that 22.9% of study sample their age between 18-24 had symptoms of PTSD [5].

Other researchers who conducted a study on a sample of 1858 male students, aged 13 to 19 years, was selected from 18 secondary schools for boys in Baghdad, revealed higher rates of PTSD occurred among adolescent’s aged l7-19 years (24.7%) [6].

Conclusion

High rate of PTSD occurred among youth in Iraq as they exposed to different types of traumatic events during during last decade after US invasion on Iraq and such conditions need urgent programs for rehabilitation of such population to minimize the effect of war and violence.

References

1. AlShawi AF, Lafta RK. Relation between childhood experiences and adults’ self-esteem: A sample from Baghdad. Qatar Medical Journal. 2014; 14: 82- 91.
2. Al-Jawadi A, Abdul-Rhman S. Prevalence of childhood and early adolescence mental disorder among children attendending primary health care centers in Mosal, Iraq: a cross-sectional study: BMC. 2007; 7: 274.
3. Ahmed SA. Post-traumatic disorders, resilience and vulnerability. Advance in Psychiatric Treatment. 2007; 13: 369-375.
4. Sabri R. Prevalence of post-traumatic stress symptoms among internally displaced people after 22nd Feb.2006 in Erbil governorate. A fellowship Thesis, Iraqi Board for Medical Specialization. 2008.
5. Al-Shawi AF, Al-Hemiary NF, Al-Diwan JK, Tahir DH. Post-traumatic stress disorder among university students in Baghdad. A preliminary. 2011.
6. Lafta RK, Aziz ZS, AlObaidi AK. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among Male Adolescents in Baghdad. J Psychol Abnorm Child. 2014; 3: 121.