The association of immigrant- and non-immigrant-specific factors with mental ill health among immigrants in Sweden.

Background: It has often been shown that immigrants are particularly at risk for mental ill health. The aim of the study was to investigate the association of immigrant- and non-immigrant-specific factors with mental ill health within a diverse immigrant population.

Method: An extensive questionnaire was sent out to a stratified random sample of three immigrant populations from Finland, Iraq and Iran.

Integrating rehabilition of torture victims into the public health of Iraq.

For the last three decades torture has been highly prevalent in Iraq. Surveys indicate that close to 50% of households have family members who have been tortured. The traumas of two subsequent wars further add to the traumatisation of the population as does the persistent violence.

The influence of the patients' ethnicity, socio-demographic conditions and strain on psychiatric diagnoses given at an outpatient clinic.

Although psychiatric diagnoses are influenced by cultural and social conditions, with large global variations, the ICD and DSM systems are applied worldwide. The aims of this study were to describe the distribution of different ethnic patient groups in psychiatric outpatient services and the influence of ethnicity, demographic conditions and social strain on psychiatric diagnoses. An entire year's cohort of psychiatric outpatients (n = 839) in an outpatient register was divided into nine groups, according to country of birth.

The significance of addressing trauma in outpatient psychiatry.

Establishing post-traumatic stress disorder as a psychiatric diagnosis has only marginally increased awareness of traumatic experiences. Traumas are inconsistently recorded in initial psychiatric histories and, when observed, rarely reflected in the primary diagnosis and treatment. The present study aimed to investigate if there is an association between sufficiently addressing trauma and long-term outcome and what factors affect whether trauma, according to the patient's view, is sufficiently addressed or not.

The aetiology of posttraumatic stress disorder in four ethnic groups in outpatient psychiatry.

Background: PTSD is one of few diagnoses to be defined by its aetiology. At treatment centres specialising in a certain type of trauma, like war, torture or sexual abuse, the aetiology may be regarded as self-explanatory. Recent surveys of general populations reveal high rates of PTSD, often following exposure to multiple traumatic events.

Long-term consequences of unrecognised PTSD in general outpatient psychiatry.

Background: Although a number of studies have shown a high prevalence of PTSD in the population, the diagnosis has hardly been recognised in general psychiatric practice. This raises two important questions. How widespread is extreme trauma and PTSD in the general psychiatry population? How does the long-term outcome among patients with PTSD differ from that of other psychiatric patients? The present study examines a psychiatry outpatient population in which none of the patients have received the primary diagnosis of PTSD.