scholarly journals Post-traumatic stress disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in Palestinian children affected by the war on Gaza

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 84-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdel Aziz Thabet ◽  
Abu Tawahina ◽  
Eyad El Sarraj ◽  
David Henely ◽  
Henrick Pelleick ◽  
...  

The Gaza Strip has been badly affected by war and conflict over the past four decades. Palestinians are exposed to repeated incursions of the border areas, with many resulting casualties. At the end of December 2008, more than 230 Palestinians were killed and at least 770 were injured, including 100 in critical condition, after an Israeli airstrike. This was followed by a military operation that continued for 23 days, in which 1420 Palestinians, including 446 children, were killed. At least 4000 houses were totally destroyed and 16000 partially damaged (Palestinian Red Crescent, 2008).

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-421
Author(s):  
A. A. Thabet ◽  
Y. Abed ◽  
P. Vostanis

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 286 Palestinian children 9-18 years of age and their mothers in the Gaza Strip. Traumatic events recollected by children living in areas of conflict, the prevalence of post-traumatic stress reactions and the relationship between children’s and mothers’ mental health were investigated. The Gaza Traumatic Events Checklist, Impact of Event Scale [IES] and General Health Questionnaire [GHQ] were used to measure outcome. Children experienced on average four traumatic events; one-third reported significant post-traumatic stress reactions. IES scores were higher among girls and mothers’ GHQ scores significantly predicted children’s IES scores.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0256426
Author(s):  
Nisreen Agbaria ◽  
Stephanie Petzold ◽  
Andreas Deckert ◽  
Nicholas Henschke ◽  
Guido Veronese ◽  
...  

Objective We undertook a systematic review of the literature to explore the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Palestinian children and adolescents exposed to political violence. This is the first systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of PTSD in this population. Methods PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, Google Scholar and Cochrane library were searched until June 2020. To estimate the prevalence of PTSD, sub-group and meta-analysis were conducted. Results The search resulted in 2786 studies, of which 28 articles representing 32 samples with a total of 15,121 participants from Gaza Strip and West Bank met either the DSM-4 or DSM-5 criteria and were included. The pooled prevalence of PTSD was 36% (95% CI 30–41%; I2 98.6%) and ranged from 6% to 70%. Sub-group analysis showed that the PTSD prevalence did not differ according to region (West Bank, Gaza Strip) and tended to decrease after including only studies using a representative sample (p<0.001), and among those with low risk of bias (p<0.001). Visual inspection of the included studies revealed significant discrepancies in study design and assessment measures. Conclusion We identified high prevalence of PTSD among Palestinian children and adolescents exposed to political violence. However, the pooled results should be interpreted with caution, due to the high heterogeneity and risk of bias in the included studies. These limitations also reflect the challenge in conceptualizing and measuring PTSD in the Palestinian context with a background of continuous and cumulative trauma. Understanding the contextual factors and developing locally adapted survey measures are of relevance to future research, public health planning, and the provision of mental healthcare in Palestine.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-93
Author(s):  
Laurel Smith Stvan

Examination of the term stress in naturally occurring vernacular prose provides evidence of three separate senses being conflated. A corpus analysis of 818 instances of stress from non-academic texts in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the Corpus of American Discourses on Health (CADOH) shows a negative prosody for stress, which is portrayed variously as a source outside the body, a physical symptom within the body and an emotional state. The data show that contemporary speakers intermingle the three senses, making more difficult a discussion between doctors and patients of ways to ‘reduce stress’, when stress might be interpreted as a stressor, a symptom, or state of anxiety. This conflation of senses reinforces the impression that stress is pervasive and increasing. In addition, a semantic shift is also refining a new sense for stress, as post-traumatic stress develops as a specific subtype of emotional stress whose use has increased in circulation in the past 20 years.


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-345
Author(s):  
Samuel Kohtala

AbstractOver the past 50 years, ketamine has solidified its position in both human and veterinary medicine as an important anesthetic with many uses. More recently, ketamine has been studied and used for several new indications, ranging from chronic pain to drug addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. The discovery of the rapid-acting antidepressant effects of ketamine has resulted in a surge of interest towards understanding the precise mechanisms driving its effects. Indeed, ketamine may have had the largest impact for advancements in the research and treatment of psychiatric disorders in the past few decades. While intense research efforts have been aimed towards uncovering the molecular targets underlying ketamine’s effects in treating depression, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain elusive. These efforts are made more difficult by ketamine’s complex dose-dependent effects on molecular mechanisms, multiple pharmacologically active metabolites, and a mechanism of action associated with the facilitation of synaptic plasticity. This review aims to provide a brief overview of the different uses of ketamine, with an emphasis on examining ketamine’s rapid antidepressant effects spanning molecular, cellular, and network levels. Another focus of the review is to offer a perspective on studies related to the different doses of ketamine used in antidepressant research. Finally, the review discusses some of the latest hypotheses concerning ketamine’s action.


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