Child Abuse Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Child Abuse, including details on family violence, examinations, long-term effects, psychiatrics disorders.

Traumatized refugee children: the case for individualized diagnosis and treatment.

Kinzie JD, Cheng K, Tsai J, Riley C

Intercultural Psychiatric Program, Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA.

The first 131 traumatized refugee children evaluated and treated in a child specialty clinic indicated a wide variety of trauma including war-related traumas (21%) for areas of recent conflict and domestic violence (28%) predominantly occurring in patients from Mexico and Latin America. Clinical diagnoses indicate PTSD was common (63%) in the war trauma group but was found less (25%) in the domestic violence group. Otherwise, the refugee clinic population showed a wide variety of diagnoses, including 20% having learning or cognitive disability or clear mental retardation. The traumatized refugee children had a similar prevalence of PTSD and depression to a comparable group of American child psychiatry patients. Refugee children have faced a variety of traumas and have a variety of diagnoses. All traumatized refugee children need an individualized evaluation and treatment plan. Trauma focused therapy is not appropriate for all refugee children.

Published 14 July 2006 in J Nerv Ment Dis, 194(7): 534-7.
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