Studies on mental health and violence in Arab and Kurdish populations have applied translated versions of standardized western instruments for the assessment of violence and trauma related disorders although the cut-off-score of these instruments have not been adjusted in the local context. Consistent with previous studies from other war regions, these investigations documented high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

So far, only a few studies have systematically addressed the psychological consequences of the civil war and migration that followed the events of the Arab spring. Although it is very likely that this crisis has had a significant impact on the mental health of the affected populations, studies addressing the effects on mental health arising from this disaster are still scarce. The civil war in Syria and Iraq forced many Syrians and Iraqis to flee, either within their own countries or to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) as well as to Europe. Since the Arab Spring, which started as a revolutionary wave of demonstrations in the Arab world in 2010 in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and finally Syria, the region has experienced a period of political instability and civil war. One of the global hot spots of insurgencies and war is the Middle East region. A key challenge for an evidence-based response is the identification of cases with psychological distress who need assistance to avoid negative long-term outcomes. Such catastrophes threaten not only the safety and physical integrity of the affected populations, but also their mental health. Given that the comparison of the two assessments included both a re-test interval and validation by different interviewers, our results indicate that the PCL-5 can be recommended as an assessment and screening instrument for Kurdish and Arab populations.Ĭurrent humanitarian crises are commonly related to civil wars or large-scale natural disasters. Using the cut-off score of 23, the PCL-5 achieved the optimal balance of sensitivity and specificity (area under the curve = .82, p < .001 sensitivity = .82, specificity = .70). The internal consistency of the PCL-5 was high (alpha = .85) and the instrument showed an adequate convergent validity. Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) were performed to determine a valid cutoff-score. In the absence of a gold-standard instrument with proven validity in this context, the expert interviewers applied the PCL-5 items in the form of a clinical interview and used a DSM-5-algorithm to determine a diagnosis of PTSD. Two weeks later, 98 randomly chosen subjects were reassessed by expert clinical psychologists. Trained interviewers administered these translations as assisted self-reports to 206 adults living in camps for displaced people in Iraq, together with depression and war-exposure instruments.

The PCL-5 was translated into Arabic and two Kurdish dialects. The specific goal was to determine a contextually valid cut-off score for a probable diagnosis of PTSD. The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties and diagnostic utility of the PCL-5 as a screening instrument for war-affected displaced Kurdish and Arab populations. So far only a few studies have examined the psychometric properties of the PCL-5, and all of these are restricted to populations living in industrialized countries. Recently the PCL was updated according to the DSM-5 criteria for PTSD.

The Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL) is a valid and reliable self-report measure for the assessment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Ptsd and dsm 5 criteria