Abstract

BackgroundThe WHO reports that anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders worldwide. Most people who experience such events recover from it; however, people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) continue to be severely depressed and anxious for several months or even years following the event. Palestinians are particularly at a higher risk for developing anxiety disorders and PTSD due to the continuous exposure to political violence, prolonged displacement, and other limitation on professional, educational, financial opportunities, and mental health services. This paper aims to provide a systematic review of the literature and established studies concerning Anxiety disorders besides PTSD in Palestine.MethodsPubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar was used to search for materials for the critical analysis of empirical articles. The following aspects were taken into consideration: study type, sample, and key findings.ResultsIn this review, we included about twenty-four studies from Palestine (West Bank and Gaza). Five studies relate to children, five relate to adolescents, three relate to women, three relate to physical diseases, and four relate to gender and age differences. Results show that anxiety disorders and PTSD are one of the most common mental disorders in Palestine. Anxiety and PTSD develop from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, personality, and life events. They are mostly associated with low quality of life and disability. The results indicate that a significant proportion of Palestinian experiencing serious issues that deal with several challenges, distinct barriers including; inconsistent availability of medications, absence of multidisciplinary teamwork, insufficient specialists, fragmented mental health system, and occupation.ConclusionAs primary prevention, the occupation has to have considered as the main source of anxiety and other mental health disorders in Palestine. Besides, there is a need to implement a mental health care system through multidisciplinary work and raising awareness regarding the prevalence of mental disorders.

Highlights

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders worldwide

  • The results showed that 22% of children had partial post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 18% had full criteria of PTSD, 62% of children had anxiety disorders [57].The second study was conducted among patients consecutively admitted to the cardiology and cardiac surgery departments of An-Najah National University Hospital, Arab-Specialized Hospital, Al Watani Hospital, and Nablus Specialized Hospital in the Northern West Bank city of Nablus

  • Anxiety disorders and PTSD were some of the most common mental disorders in Palestine. They develop from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, personality, and life events

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Summary

Introduction

The WHO reports that anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders worldwide. Most people who experience such events recover from it; people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) continue to be severely depressed and anxious for several months or even years following the event. Palestinians are at a higher risk for developing anxiety disorders and PTSD due to the continuous exposure to political violence, prolonged displacement, and other limitation on professional, educational, financial opportunities, and mental health services. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, though only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment. It affects 25.1% of children between 13 and 18 years old. Researchers found that untreated children with anxiety disorders are at higher risk of being engaged in substance abuse, perform poorly in school, miss out on essential social experiences. In the U.S, 45.9% of women and 65% of men who got raped are likely to develop the disorder [3]

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