Mental Health of Refugees - Etiology and Treatment

The book provides a comprehensive review of mental health in refugees by discussing its multiple dimensions, and analyzing epidemiology, etiology, and culturally adapted assessment and treatment.  Key topics include why certain refugees cope successfully with traumatic experiences while others do not, and the biological, psychological, and social processes underlying posttraumatic stress disorder, common mental disorders, substance abuse and personality disorders.
The text examines topics such as complexities of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery for refugees. Furthermore, the roles of culture, social support, and mental health workers in the process of overcoming mental health problems in refugees are discussed. Together, the chapters provide an in-depth examination of the current understood causes, and impacts of mental health problems and treatment of refugees to inform future work in the field. The book gives its readers a solid basis for understanding mental health problems of refugees and sets out to present practitioners with a state-of-the-art summary of all the latest developments and practical guidance. Furthermore, this book provides the practitioner with instructions on how culturally adapted treatments can be used not only with adults, but also with children and young people to help the practitioner to prepare for working with this difficult client group.

Drawing from a range of different fields of study, this text will appeal to readers across psychological, mental health, medical, and academic disciplines.




Paul Emmelkamp has been working as a practicing clinical psychologist and psychotherapist alongside his academic carrier and has made significant contributions to the fields of clinical psychology, psychopathology, and psychiatry. He has been appointed in 1987 as full professor in clinical psychology and psychotherapy at the University of Groningen and in 1996 at the University of Amsterdam and has been appointed in 2006 as Academy Professor by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science. He was Director of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study from 2013-2016. He was until 2018 President of the International Federation for Psychotherapy and is since 1993 Editor in Chief of Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy. He has written and edited a number of books on research into a variety of clinical subjects including anxiety disorders, depression, addiction and personality disorders. He was senior research fellow at the Institute for Advanced study in Paris from 2021-2022, where he worked on the research project 'Cross-cultural factors, psychotherapy and post-traumatic stress in refugees'.