Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Depression and Anxiety among North Korean Refugees: A Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE: Post-traumatic stress disorder is common among North Korean refugees who have fled their country for economic, financial and humanitarian reasons. Co-morbid depression and anxiety are also common among North Korean refugees, due to the difficulties they have faced within their country and during their escape journey. Depression and anxiety complicate treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, and lead to poorer outcomes. Thus, the aim of the present study was to provide a meta-analysis of studies investigating post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety among North Korean refugees. METHODS: Selected articles were published in English, and included measures of post-traumatic stress, and/or depression and anxiety. 10 studies were included in the depression meta-analysis, and 6 in the anxiety meta-analysis. RESULTS: A random-effects model revealed strong, significant associations between post-traumatic stress and depression, r=0.63, 95% CI (0.51, 0.72), p<0.001, z=8.33, and anxiety, r=0.51, 95% CI (0.36, 0.63), p<0.001, z=6.07. The relationships between post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety were higher among adults and those with more than five years outside of North Korea. CONCLUSION: Depression appears to be an important treatment focus for North Korean refugees with post-traumatic stress.

Prevalence of psychological problems amongst Iranian immigrant children and adolescents in UK

This study was designed to estimate prevalence rates of psychological problems in immigrant Iranian children in the UK and to evaluate the associated characteristic. A group of 244 children and adolescents, 111 boys and 133 girls between the ages 6 to 15 was selected. The children were categorised into groups with different psychological problems by their teachers on the Teacher's Report Form [TRF]. Also, the parents and The children completed the Child Behaviour Checklist [CBCL] and the Youth Self-Report [YSR] for The ages 11 to 15 years, respectively. Two-way ANOVAs using gender and age groups as factors showed that there were significant effects of gender in these subscales, Attention problems [p<0.001], delinquent behaviour [p<0.001], aggressive behaviour [p<0.001], externalising [p<0.001] and total problems [p<0.02]. Two-way ANOVAs using age-group and gender as factors showed that there were no significant effects of age in the eight subscales of the CBCL; although a trend toward significance was observed for the withdrawn subscale. The interactions between gender and age for all subscales were not significant. The results show that the level of psychological problems in this group is as high as their counterparts in Iran and Achenbach's US normative samples, if not higher. This might result from immigration stressors and the pressure of bilingual education