migrants and psychosomatic symptoms

IntroductionIntroduction

M.Perito1,R.M.Calia2,G.Carpentieri1,S.DeGuglielmo1,G.DelBuono3,V.Fasano1,N.Fiorentino4,R.Napolitano1,M.Forgione2,D.Scotti2,B.Solomita2,F.Franza4.1"Neamente"NeuroscienceAssociation,Neuroscience,Avellino,Italy.2YouThinkAssociation,Psychology,Avellino,Italy.3UniversityofSalerno,Psychiatry,Salerno,Italy.4NeuropsychiatricCentre"VilladeiPini",Psychiatry,Avellino,Italy.

We included 85 immigrants (70 men, 15 women mean age: 21.3 ys) hosted inEmergencyCentreinAvellino,Italy.ThecountriesoforiginoftherespondentsareNigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Yemen, Mali. All guests have conductedpsychologicalclinicalinterviews.

Atbaseline following scaleswere administered:ThePatientHealthQuestionnaire(PHQ9)IllnessBehaviourInventory(IBI)Symptomschecklist90Revised(SCL90R)scale.Samedatawascollectedafterthreemonths.

For statistical evaluation we used the EZAnalyze Version 3.0 software, on MSExcel.

Videoshowsmigrants'activitiesinCentrodiaccoglienzaPetrilli,Monteforte(AV)

Migrantsandpsychosomaticsymptoms:Migrantsandpsychosomaticsymptoms:anevaluationinanEmergencyCentreanevaluationinanEmergencyCentre..

In recent years, there has been an increase in migration in Europe.Refugees often experience traumatic events associated with war,persecution, torture, sexual violence and the challenges of resettling inexile (Lolk, et al, 2016). Therefore, refugees are at risk of developingposttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxious anddepressive symptoms.Whilesomegroupsofimmigrantsmayhavelowerratesofmentalhealthproblems,othersmayexperiencebarriers toseekinghelp (Straitonetal.,2014). Some studies have found significantly higher rates of somaticcomorbidity amongmigrants with PTSD and depression compared withmigrantswithoutadiagnosedpsychiatricdisorders.Particularly, Italy has been one of the most important landing place.Currently,migrantsintheprovinceofAvellino,SouthItalycity,amounttoabout 1.400, housed in 40 facilities in 23 municipalities. Psychologicalinterestonmigrationand its impactonlifestylepatternshas increased inrecentyears.

Themigrant groupwas a heterogeneous group. Overall data on IBI andPHQ9 scale indicate a statistically significant variation baseline vsdeadline Data of IBI scale is statistically significant [TScore:3,921P:003]alsowithPHQ9[T0vsT1:TScore:3,986P:.003].SimilarresultshavebeenfoundwithSCL90R.

AimAim

Assessmentofsomaticsymptomsreportedbytheimmigrantcohortafterathreemonthobservationperiod.

ResultsResults

MethodMethod

DiscussionandConclusionsDiscussionandConclusions

Inthefirstpsychologicalevaluations, immigrants attention isfocusedonphysicalsymptoms(forexample,stomachpain,frequent itching,physicalfatigueandlackofenergy),notonpsychicpain.Onlyafewmigrantstalkabout their inner experience, despite the trauma and the terrible violencesuffered,thestoriesofforcedremovalfromtheirorigins,theircountryandthefamily.Inthefirstinterviews,themigrantsdonotspeakofhimself,andevenwhentheytellthepast,cannotfeeltheemotionalburden.

Onlyafterfour,fiveweeklypsychologicalinterviews,theybegintospeak,withgreat effort of self, ofone'sorigins, of the attachment to the familyunit.

The emotions can be thought of helping them to give a name to theirpain they can reflect and process all that has been the experience ofanguishthattheseguysbringwiththem,andsotheiranguishsexperience.

Often, traumatic events, unrecognized emotions, not only are somatized,but going to compromise the cognitive functioning, some in fact, fail todevelop,andsometimesrememberinghisownexperience,"theunspoken"becomes like aghost, and thebodybecomes traumatic experience voice,evenwithgestures,posture,facialexpressions.

A psychological empowerment helps them to think and to access thepsychologicaldimensionof their stories.So, theseguyscanstart to thinkaboutafuturethatseemedinitiallytohavebeendeleted.Afteraperiodofpsychologicalsupportinalmostalllistenedmigrantssymptomatologywasreducedof80%.

Dr.FrancescoFranzaNeuropsychiatricCentreVilladeiPini,ViaPennini86/a(83100)Avellino,Italy.email:franza.francesco@virgilio.it

ReferencesReferences

FadnesLT,DiazE.PrimaryhealthcareusageanduseofmedicationsamongimmigrantchildrenaccordingtoageofarrivaltoNorway:apopulationbasedstudy.BMJOpen.2017Feb17(2):e014641LolkM,BybergS,CarlssonJ,NorredamM.Somaticcomorbidityamongmigrantswithposttraumaticstressdisorderanddepressionaprospectivecohortstudy.BMCPsychiatry.2016Dec1316(1):447.StraitonM,ReneflotA,DiazE.Immigrants'useofprimaryhealthcareservicesformentalhealthproblems.BMCHealthServRes.2014Aug1314:341

ObjectivesObjectives

Therearefewstudiesthatevaluatedthefrequentpsychosomaticsymptomsinthesepopulations.Despitethetraumaexperienced,theyarenotabletogiveanametothesufferedandsomatizedpain.

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