Psychotraumatology in Greece

Psychological trauma is very common, understudied and consequently undertreated in Greece and many other countries. The word trauma comes from the Greek trauma (τραύμα) meaning traumawound, alteration of trōma; akin to Greek titrōskein = to wound, tetrainein = to pierce. Although there is no data available on the prevalence rates of trauma or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Greece, there is no reason to believe that various types of traumatic experiences are not common phenomena in Greek society. Greece, often called the cradle of Western civilization, historically known as Hellas, is well known for its important place in history over the centuries. Aristotle, Archimedes and Hippocrates stand for major scientific, mathematical and medical principles. Democracy, Western philosophy and literature and the Olympic Games originate in this country, and today its archaeological richness, natural beauty (the Aegean and Ionian islands, the mainland) and its friendly and hospitable people make the country an attractive place to visit. However, Greece is also a country where natural disasters occur quite frequently, road traffic accidents cause thousands of people to be injured or lose their life, and child abuse and neglect has immediate and long term mental and physical health effects. At the same time, Greeks are resilient and overcome adversities. Until now, there are no epidemiological studies on Greek (youth) mental health and studies on trauma and resilience are absent (Southwick, Bonanno, Masten, Panter-Brick, & Yehuda, 2014). On top of the adversities listed above, Greek society is struggling economically which might impact the present and future of the younger population in particular (Kolaitis & Giannakopoulos, 2015). Although the effect of the financial crisis on the mental health of young people is still unknown, it is expected to produce a youth mental health crisis. Thousands of educated young people have left Greece (the so-called ‘brain drain’) to find work abroad. Increasing numbers of children and their families with complicated psychosocial adversities and sometimes trauma are seen as outpatients or admitted as inpatients. A characteristic and disturbing example is the number of neglected or abused children admitted for child protection to the largest Greek paediatric hospital before they end up in an institution; this number has risen from 81 cases in 2011 to 170 cases in 2014 (Kolaitis & Giannakopoulos, 2015). Studies in adults show a significant association between major depression, suicide mortality and economic hardship (Economou, Madianos, Peppou, Patelakis, & Stefanis, 2013; Kontaxakis et al., 2013). Greece is not among the top 20 of most publishing countries in the world on trauma or trauma related pathology (Olff & Vermetten, 2013). However, considering its relatively small population of 10,816,286 people (2011) and relative lack of supporting research, Greece has significantly contributed to the scientific literature. During the last 15 years or so, research in Greece has been expanding and researchers have tried to study various populations exposed to different common potentially traumatic situations and events. Below we present examples of major areas of psychotrauma research in Greece, followed by current research as presented in the Athens conference 19–20 May 2017. The conference was organized by the Greek Society of Child Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry in Athens, on Psychological Trauma in Children and Adolescents. More than 200 professionals and young scientists attended this successful conference which is expected to be developed into an annual international conference. The programme included a welcome by Ntre, president of the organizing society, presentations on trauma across the genders (Olff, 2017), on trauma and PTSD in youth populations (Kolaitis, 2017) and on the impact of trauma and PTSD on physical and mental health or neurobiological outcomes (Agorastos, 2017; Lazaratou, 2017; Pervanidou, Agorastos, Kolaitis, & Chrousos, 2017; Thomadaki, 2017); presentations addressed trauma and psychiatric sequelae in different populations (Belivanaki, Ropi, Kanari, Tsiantis, & Kolaitis, 2017; Charitaki, Pervanidou, Tsiantis, Chrousos, & Kolaitis, 2017; Farmakopoulou, Triantafyllou, & Kolaitis, 2017; Triantafyllou, Ntre, & Kolaitis, 2017) and specific forms of psychotherapy of trauma and PTSD (Kalantzi-Azizi & Anastasiou, 2017; Papanikolopoulos & PrattosSpongalides, 2017; Syros, 2017).