Abstract: Displaced, Overlooked, and Disadvantaged: A Systematic Review of Mental Health Studies of Adult Syrian Refugees (Society for Social Work and Research 22nd Annual Conference - Achieving Equal Opportunity, Equity, and Justice)

Schedule:

Friday, January 12, 2018: 9:06 AM

Marquis BR Salon 14 (ML 2) (Marriott Marquis Washington DC)

* noted as presenting author

Melissa Meinhart, MSW, Doctoral Student, Columbia University, New York, NY

Erin Mills, BA, Master's Student, Columbia University, New York, NY

Lynn Michalopoulos, PhD, Associate Professor, Columbia University, New York, NY

Nabila El-Bassel, PhD, Professor, Columbia University, New York, NY

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this review was to identify the state of mental health research for Syrian refugees and inform future research to understand better their experiences and the type of mental health responses.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of mental health studies among adult Syrian refugees, including peer-reviewed articles published between January 2011 and November 2016. Both intervention and descriptive studies were included in the review. We included studies on mental health - including trauma, depression, and grief – of adult Syrian refugees. Of the 792 papers identified in the search, 26 met the inclusion criteria.

Results: The average sample size of participants in each of the 26 papers was 284. The vast majority of studies took place in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. Over a third of the studies focused on in-camp refugees. PTSD diagnosis and mental health symptomatology were the most commonly examined mental health components. Only 11 of the 26 studies used validated mental health measures. Of these 11 validated measures, 7 were standardized and 4 were designed specifically for the Syrian refugee population. The two most common measures used in the 26 papers were the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview Plus. All reviewed studies show that migration stressors can have a specific impact on mental health needs.

Conclusion: There is a need to invest in mental health research for Syrian refugees to understand their mental health experiences and inform services and treatment approaches. Moreover, more attention should be placed on mental health intervention research. Future studies should include large sample size, representative of the diverse population of Syrian refugees (ie. outside camps and Middle East). More research is needed on the design, adaptation and testing of psychometrics so that study instruments can be culturally appropriate and accurately capture refugee experiences.