Combined Psychosocial and Pharmacological Treatment of Traumatized Refugees

Abstract

The cross-cultural treatment of traumatized refugees is complicated and difficult. The cross-cultural issues of language and values expectations of treatment add to the already difficult task of treating PTSD, depression, and other psychiatric disorders among the refugees. Treatment has usually been suggested with psychosocial therapeutic approaches. These have included psychoanalytic approaches (De Wind, 1971; Varvin &Hauff, 1998), behavioral and cognitive approaches (Basoglu, 1998), testimonial therapy (Cienfuegos &Monelli, 1983), and trauma-focused treatment techniques (Drozdek &Wilson, 2004). Research into the effectiveness of these techniques has been few, undoubtedly because of the large problems of psychotherapy outcome studies across both trauma and cultures. Arecent report found that after nine months in a psychotherapy program, the torture survivors showed little improvement (Carlsson, Mortensen, &Kastrup, 2005).