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A Critical Analysis and a Suggested Reform of Psychiatric Curricula in Medical Faculties During Syrian Crisis

Received: 8 July 2016     Accepted: 9 July 2016     Published: 27 August 2016
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Abstract

Recent research shows that secondary consequences of war on family, social, and economic life are important predictors of psychological outcomes. Post traumatic stress disorders PTSDs have been found to increase dramatically during war as they are psychological responses to intense traumatic events, particularly which threaten life. Syria is facing a serious health problem since the number of outpatients with somatic symptoms and related disorders has increased as well as the number of inpatients with psychiatric emergencies, has also risen during Syrian crisis. The WHO emphasizes that mental health should be viewed as an integral part of public health and social welfare programs, and not as a specialist activity set apart. The Syrian society is in critical need for young medical doctors, who are specifically trained to handle psychiatric complex situations and who, are culturally attuned to their requirements, problems of peace, and human rights. It has been of critical importance to assess the current psychiatric curricula, related to stress disorders, which are delivered in Syrian medical schools. This paper presents a critical analysis to the current psychiatric curricula in Syrian Universities and suggests a new psychiatric curricula and training that need to be delivered in order to produce health professionals who are able to provide psychological first aid, problem-solving counseling, relaxation training, and mange acute behavioral emergencies in countries that suffer from conflicts and crisis. This would be of critical importance to design community-based and culturally sensitive programs and also to design recovery-oriented programs that can promote mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of people affected by crisis.

Published in American Journal of Health Research (Volume 4, Issue 6-1)

This article belongs to the Special Issue Medical Education in Emergency

DOI 10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2016040601.13
Page(s) 12-18
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Psychiatric Curricula, Crisis, Syria, Emergency, Curriculum Reform

References
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[2] Priebe S, Matanov A, Gavrilović JJ, McCrone P, Ljubotina D,3 Knežević G, Kučukalić A,5 Francisković T,and Schützwohl M. Consequences of Untreated Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following War in Former Yugoslavia: Morbidity, Subjective Quality of Life, and Care Costs. Croat Med J 2009; 50: 465–475.
[3] Nader K, Pynoos R, Fairbanks L, Al-Ajeel M, & Al-Asfour A. A preliminary study of PTSD and grief among the children of Kuwait following the gulf crisis. BJCP 1993; 32: 407–416.
[4] Weind S, Becker D, McGlashan T, Vojvoda D, Hartman S, & Robbins J. Bosnian adolescent survivors of “ethnic cleaning” on the first year in America. JAACAP 1995; 34: 1153–1159.
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[10] McCauley JL, Killeen T, Gros DF, Brady KT, and Back SE. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorders: Advances in Assessment and Treatment. Clin Psychol (New York). 2012; 19: 1-27.
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[13] Al-Hashimi SS Post-traumatic stress reactions in children of war in Iraq. MMJ 2008; 7: 37–40.
[14] Summerfield D. Conflict and health: War and mental health: a brief overview. BMJ. 2000; 321: 232–235.
[15] Basoglu M, Paker M, Ozmen E, Tasdemir O, Sahin D. Factors related to long­term traumatic stress in survivors of torture in Turkey. JAMA. 1994; 272: 357-363.
[16] Solomon Z, Mikulincer M. Trajectories of PTSD: a 20-year longitudinal study. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2006; 163: 659-666.
[17] Robert J. Ursano. RJ, Bell C, Eth S, Friedman M, Norwood A, Pfefferbaum B, Pynoos, RS, Zatzick, DF, Benedek DM. practice guideline for the Treatment of Patients With Acute Stress Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, American Psychiatric Association, 2010.
[18] Dohrenwend BP, Turner JB, Turse NA, Adams BG, Koenen KC, Marshall R. The psychological risks of Vietnam for US veterans: a revisit with new data and methods. Science 2006; 313: 979-982.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Youssef Latifeh, Mayssoon Dashash. (2016). A Critical Analysis and a Suggested Reform of Psychiatric Curricula in Medical Faculties During Syrian Crisis. American Journal of Health Research, 4(6-1), 12-18. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2016040601.13

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    ACS Style

    Youssef Latifeh; Mayssoon Dashash. A Critical Analysis and a Suggested Reform of Psychiatric Curricula in Medical Faculties During Syrian Crisis. Am. J. Health Res. 2016, 4(6-1), 12-18. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2016040601.13

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    AMA Style

    Youssef Latifeh, Mayssoon Dashash. A Critical Analysis and a Suggested Reform of Psychiatric Curricula in Medical Faculties During Syrian Crisis. Am J Health Res. 2016;4(6-1):12-18. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2016040601.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2016040601.13,
      author = {Youssef Latifeh and Mayssoon Dashash},
      title = {A Critical Analysis and a Suggested Reform of Psychiatric Curricula in Medical Faculties During Syrian Crisis},
      journal = {American Journal of Health Research},
      volume = {4},
      number = {6-1},
      pages = {12-18},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2016040601.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.s.2016040601.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajhr.s.2016040601.13},
      abstract = {Recent research shows that secondary consequences of war on family, social, and economic life are important predictors of psychological outcomes. Post traumatic stress disorders PTSDs have been found to increase dramatically during war as they are psychological responses to intense traumatic events, particularly which threaten life. Syria is facing a serious health problem since the number of outpatients with somatic symptoms and related disorders has increased as well as the number of inpatients with psychiatric emergencies, has also risen during Syrian crisis. The WHO emphasizes that mental health should be viewed as an integral part of public health and social welfare programs, and not as a specialist activity set apart. The Syrian society is in critical need for young medical doctors, who are specifically trained to handle psychiatric complex situations and who, are culturally attuned to their requirements, problems of peace, and human rights. It has been of critical importance to assess the current psychiatric curricula, related to stress disorders, which are delivered in Syrian medical schools. This paper presents a critical analysis to the current psychiatric curricula in Syrian Universities and suggests a new psychiatric curricula and training that need to be delivered in order to produce health professionals who are able to provide psychological first aid, problem-solving counseling, relaxation training, and mange acute behavioral emergencies in countries that suffer from conflicts and crisis. This would be of critical importance to design community-based and culturally sensitive programs and also to design recovery-oriented programs that can promote mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of people affected by crisis.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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    AU  - Youssef Latifeh
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    AB  - Recent research shows that secondary consequences of war on family, social, and economic life are important predictors of psychological outcomes. Post traumatic stress disorders PTSDs have been found to increase dramatically during war as they are psychological responses to intense traumatic events, particularly which threaten life. Syria is facing a serious health problem since the number of outpatients with somatic symptoms and related disorders has increased as well as the number of inpatients with psychiatric emergencies, has also risen during Syrian crisis. The WHO emphasizes that mental health should be viewed as an integral part of public health and social welfare programs, and not as a specialist activity set apart. The Syrian society is in critical need for young medical doctors, who are specifically trained to handle psychiatric complex situations and who, are culturally attuned to their requirements, problems of peace, and human rights. It has been of critical importance to assess the current psychiatric curricula, related to stress disorders, which are delivered in Syrian medical schools. This paper presents a critical analysis to the current psychiatric curricula in Syrian Universities and suggests a new psychiatric curricula and training that need to be delivered in order to produce health professionals who are able to provide psychological first aid, problem-solving counseling, relaxation training, and mange acute behavioral emergencies in countries that suffer from conflicts and crisis. This would be of critical importance to design community-based and culturally sensitive programs and also to design recovery-oriented programs that can promote mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of people affected by crisis.
    VL  - 4
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Author Information
  • Department of Psychiatry Almouwasat University Hospital, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria

  • Faculty of Dentistry, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria

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