Abstract
This chapter describes how chronic conflict, warfare, and persecution, as lived experiences, have created significant mental distress in communities on the African continent. There is a growing body of research that highlights increasing mental distress in Africa e.g., about sexuality, health, disease, modernity, climate, politics, culture, religion, ethnicities, race, economies etc. Many of these stresses and uncertainties are driven by political persecution, war, and conflict. This has shaped many African people’s attitudes and government policies and an increasing scholarly interest in exploring these “uncertainties and mental distresses in Africa.” The chapter will show how trauma, as seen in conflict/post-conflict settings in Africa, causes significant mental stress and associated social problems as well as medically-defined PTSD syndromes, anxiety, and depression which cause much morbidity and retard development in many African communities. Taking a classical look at post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, the chapter explores the presentation of the various physical and mental clinical syndromes related to war-trauma on the African continent and the consequent health-seeking behaviors of the African peoples in this regard. The term “culture-bound PTSD syndromes” will be introduced and discussed in the broader context of treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention on the continent and worldwide. It will also discuss the dilemma of the vicious cycles of trauma driven by appetitive aggression in today’s Africa which portends to further retard socio-economic development and drives the trans-generational perpetuation of ethnic-based conflicts including genocides. Despite this mass traumatization, the chapter points to the virtual absence of post-conflict mental health policies in almost all African countries, hence leading to discussions of “best-practices” recommendations.
Highlights
There is a growing body of research that highlights increasing social and psychological distress in Africa [1]
These have shaped the current African peoples’ attitudes, politics, government policies, and population movements and migrations. They have attracted increasing scholarly interest in exploring these African “problems.” This chapter will take a classical look at post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, to explore the presentation of the various physical and mental clinical syndromes related to war-trauma on the African continent throughout the ages and the consequent health-seeking behaviors of the African peoples in this regard
Psychiatrically, anxiety is defined as a disorder characterized by a state of excessive fear, worry, and apprehensive expectation occurring on more days than not about a number of potentially stressful events, situations, or activities such as happens in severe illness, famine, disasters, or war which often causes trauma and ill-health mentally, physically, and socially [35]
Summary
There is a growing body of research that highlights increasing social and psychological distress in Africa [1]. Many of these psycho-social problems have been driven by war-conflict [3] These have shaped the current African peoples’ attitudes, politics, government policies, and population movements and migrations. The chapter describes how chronic warfare, as a lived experience, creates significant social and psychological distress in and about the African continent It will show how trauma, as seen in conflict/post-conflict settings in Africa, causes significant psycho-social problems and medically welldefined psychiatric syndromes such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression which cause much morbidity and retard development in many African communities. The lack of post-conflict mental health policies in most African countries will be discussed and best-practice recommendations made
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