Search

Background: The Arab Region accounts for most of the world's refugees. Despite being dispersed across the globe, most of these refugees are internally displaced within the region. A growing body of research argues that Western biomedical frameworks for conceptualizing, diagnosing, and treating trauma may not be suitable for non-Western and trauma caused by political violence inflicted on entire populations over time. The cultural and socio/political contexts of trauma are increasingly recognized as key to understanding trauma-related distress. Arab trauma research has emerged in the past 30 years. Nevertheless, the results are not systematically consolidated. Aim: This review aims to identify and map knowledge production in the Arab Region that is challenging Western notions of trauma experienced by Arab refugees in the region and attempts to explore the contours of a more culturally congruent conceptualization of trauma. Method: Following the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR), we conducted a scoping review. Peer-reviewed, empirical literature from 1990 to 2023 was searched in eight English and three Arabic databases. Results and implications: Out of 2654 articles only ten were included. Included publications explored two main areas: conceptualization of trauma in Arab samples and addressing the subject of traumatization. The articles highlighted the limitations of using the PTSD model to diagnose and treat Arab refugees' traumatic stress and the importance of contextual, structural, and cultural factors in distress conceptualization. The articles provide research, clinical, and policy implications addressing adoption of social justice frameworks, development of contextually relevant trauma models, clinical investigations and assessment of symptoms and idioms.

This article describes a nonrandomized program evaluation study of a trauma-focused intervention for youth incarcerated for felony-level offenses in a juvenile justice setting. Thirty-eight youth previously assigned to two mental health units were provided with Treatment as Usual (TAU) plus a one day trauma training for staff, while 36 youth placed on three mental health units during the same time frame were provided with the intervention, which included TAU combined with environmental modifications, additional trauma training for staff, and Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy group for youth. Results showed significant reductions in depression, youth threats toward staff, use of physical restraints, and seclusion rates for youth on the intervention program units when compared with youth on the TAU program units. The youth involved in the intervention program also reported greater hope and optimism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]