Physiotherapy and Psychological Among Refugees From Syria

Summary

The war in Syria began in 2011 and refugees from this country have faced stressors including security risks, lack of access and availability of basic services and resources as well as family, community, and socio political tensions. Exposure to stressful events or situations, either short or long lasting, of exceptionally threatening or catastrophic nature is likely to cause pervasive distress in almost anyone, which might disturb daily life function, integration in society and ability to function in work and society, although this stress does not necessarily need to become an established medical diagnose. For a long time now, somatic and mental health systems have been overburdened and inaccessible both in Syria and in transit countries, and there is little available evidence of the effect of interventions targeting common health problems among refugees once established in their host countries.

In this project, the University of Bergen, in close collaboration with the Centre for Migration Health (Bergen municipality) and the Centre for Crisis Psychology, have developed two treatment interventions that are both theoretically sound and practically scalable if shown to be effective.

Among resettled asylum seekers and refugees, the primary aim of the project is to separately study in a quantitative way the effect on both physical and mental health of two different interventions: Physiotherapy activity and awareness intervention for participants with pain disorders and Teaching recovery techniques for participants with post-traumatic symptoms In addition, in a qualitative mode, our secondary aim is to analyse the processes by which the interventions help/do not help the patients to improve their health. Last, as the third aim of the study, cost effectiveness analyses will be conducted.

Conditions

• Pain
• Mental Health Impairment

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Physiotherapy activity and awareness intervention: PAAI

10 to 12 persons will be invited to each group. The intervention will consist on 8 weekly sessions including the same key elements each time: introduction with a mindfulness exercise and a ball game, several movements while sitting on a chair, standing proprioceptive exercises with wooden sticks and exercises to raise awareness of muscle tensions in the body, active movements stimulating the balance, coordination and breathing and finally relaxation and a short closing round.

BEHAVIORAL

Psychological intervention: Teaching recovery techniques (TRT)

TRT is composed of five two-hour group teaching sessions with up to 15 participants. The first two sessions deal with intrusive thoughts and feelings: problems such as bad memories, nightmares, and flashbacks. The third session deals with arousal, coming to the surface as difficulties in relaxing, concentrating and sleeping. The fourth and fifth sessions deal with avoidance: ones fears, and difficulties in facing up to reminders of the war and violence.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Norwegian Institute of Public Health

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• University of Bergen

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-07-01

Primary Completion

2019-12-31

Completion

2025-12-31

Countries

• Norway

Study Locations