Statement of the Research Problem

While new refugee populations are created during international strife, the plight of refugees is, in fact, on-going, global, and endemic. Refugees often physically obtain food, shelter, or even a new home in a host country, but may remain emotionally in crisis years following exile (Desjarlais, Eisenberg, Good & Kleinman, 1996). The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that there are currently 45 million refugees and internally displaced persons (UNHCR, 2001) yet epidemiologic studies of their mental health have occurred only in the last decade. Even less is known about how cultural, economic, environmental factors, and the unique population’s traumatic circumstances have an influence on the development of psychiatric sequalae years after the refugee flight. There is little information on the mental health needs of refugees in long-term refugee camps in the developing world, even though chronic refugee status may increase a pathogenic impact on mental health (Mollica et al., 1993