Suffering Has No Race or Nation: The Psychological Impact of the Refugee Crisis in Hungary and the Occurrence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

The “European migrant crisis” is one of the greatest social, political, and cultural challenges since World War II. Hundreds of thousands of people exposed to multiple psychological traumas are trying to find shelter in Europe. It would be indispensable to gain more information about the mental health of these individuals. The aim of the present study was to explore the occurrence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among refugees arriving in Hungary. Participants received the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-Revised (HTQ), which was validated against the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview 6.0 (MINI). We interviewed 450 asylum seekers (332 male, 43% from Syria). There were 189 men (57%) and 85 women (72%) who received the diagnosis of PTSD. Altogether, 274 asylum seekers (61%) met PTSD criteria. Individuals from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq plus other countries displayed similar PTSD rates. The extremely high occurrence of PTSD in asylum seekers suffering from the global crisis calls for immediate attention and efforts to implement integrated solutions in Europe.