Trauma and PTSD rates in an irish psychiatric population

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of Irish and migrant individuals

Characteristic	Irish n	Irish %	Migrant n	Migrant %	χ^2 p
Gender
Male	59	51.8%	32	50.0%	0.47
Female	55	48.2%	32	50.0%
Marital Status
Single	76	65.0%	36	56.3%	0.06
Married/Cohabitating	19	18.3%	21	32.8%
Separated/Divorced	16	16.7%	7	10.9%
Widowed	3	2.6%
Relationship Status
In a relationship	27		28		0.01
Not in a relationship	87		36
Education Level
No Formal Education	1	0.9%	3	4.7%	0.00
Primary Level	18	15.8%	8	12.5%
Junior Second Level	37	32.5%	7	10.9%
Final Second Level	23	20.2%	25	39.1%
Third Level Vocational	21	18.4%	5	7.8%
Third Level University	14	12.3%	15	23.4%
Postgraduate University	0	0.0%	1	1.6%
Occupational Status
Managerial and Technical	2	1.8%	0	0.0%	0.37
Non-Manual	12	10.5%	3	4.7%
Skilled Manual	10	8.8%	5	7.8%
Semi-Skilled Manual	7	6.1%	4	6.3%
Unskilled Manual	7	6.1%	5	7.8%
Full-Time Education	7	6.1%	9	14.1%
Part-Time Education	3	2.6%	0	0.0%
Unemployed	66	57.9%	38	59.4%

Table 2. Lifetime exposure to potentially traumatic events

Traumatic Event	Irish		Migrant		Total
	%	n	%	n	%	n
Lack of shelter*	15.8	18	35.9	23	23.0	41
Lack of food or water*	9.6	11	40.6	26	20.8	37
Ill health without access to medical care	3.5	4	31.2	20	13.5	24
Beating to the body*	14.9	17	39.1	25	23.6	42
Rape*	14.0	16	20.3	13	16.3	29
Other types of sexual abuse/ humiliation	18.4	21	7.8	5	14.6	26
Torture	0.0	0	26.6	17	10.0	17
Imprisonment	8.8	0	28.1	18	15.7	28
Other forced separation from family	7.0	8	26.6	17	14.0	25
Enforced isolation from others	3.5	4	12.5	8	6.7	12
Murder of family member/friend*	8.8	10	43.8	28	21.3	38
Witness beatings to the head/body	1.8	2	28.1	18	11.2	20
Witness torture	0.9	1	14.1	9	5.6	10
Witness killing or murder	6.1	7	29.7	19	14.6	26
Any other trauma not specified	40.4	46	26.6	17	35.4	63

* Top 5 events reported by the overall sample

Table 3. Top 5 traumatic events in the Irish vs. migrant groups

	Irish	%	Migrant	%
1	Sexual abuse/humiliation	18.4%	Murder of family/friend	43.8%
2	Lack of shelter	15.8%	Lack of food/water	40.6%
3	Beatings to the body	14.9%	Beatings to the body	39.1%
4	Rape	14.0%	Lack of shelter	35.9%
5	Lack of food/ water	9.6%	Imprisonment	28.1%

Table 4. Top 5 traumatic events in the forced vs. voluntary migrant groups

	Forced Migrant	%	Voluntary Migrant	%
1	Murder of family/friends	71.9%	Beatings to the body	25.0%
2	Lack of food/water	65.6%	Lack of shelter	18.8%
3	Witness murder/killings	56.3%	Rape	15.6%
4	Beatings to the body	53.1%	Murder of family/friends	15.6%
5	Ill health w/out medical care	53.1%	Lack of food/water	15.6%

Table 5. Top five types of torture reported by tortured forced migrants

Type of Torture	%	n
Beating, kicking, striking with objects	100.0	17
Threats or humiliation	100.0	17
Exposed to unhygienic conditions	64.7	11
Being chained to others	52.9	9
Isolation/solitary confinement	47.1	8

Table 6. Forced migrant group comparisons of PTSD symptomatology for torture v. non-torture survivors

HTQ Symptomatology	Torture (n = 17)		No Torture (n = 15)		Sig. p
	M	SD	M	SD
DSM-IV PTSD Score	2.51	0.85	1.58	1.06	0.01
HTQ-R Total Score	2.15	0.73	1.38	0.82	0.01