mindfulness-based trauma recovery for refugees (mbtr-r)

Conditions: Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Stress Related Disorder

Summary: worldwide, refugees and asylum seekers suffer at high rates from trauma- and stress-related mental health problems. the investigators thus developed mindfulness-based trauma recovery for refugees (mbtr-r) - a 9-week, mindfulness- and compassion-based, trauma-sensitive and socio-culturally adapted, group intervention for refugees and asylum seekers. the overarching aims of the study were to, first, test whether mbtr-r is an efficacious and safe mental health intervention for traumatized refugees and asylum seekers with respect to stress- and trauma-related mental health outcomes; and, second, to test theorized mechanisms of action of mbtr-r. accordingly, the investigators conducted a randomized waitlist-controlled trial among a community sample of female and male eritrean asylum seekers in an urban post-displacement setting in the middle east (israel).

broadly, the investigators aimed to assess whether mbtr-r is an efficacious and safe mental health intervention for traumatized asylum seekers. aim i: the investigators predicted that, relative to a waitlist control condition, mbtr-r will lead to improved stress-and trauma-related mental health outcomes, including lower levels and rates of posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and improved subjective well-being at post-intervention and 5-week follow-up. aim ii: the investigators aimed to test, whether relative to the waitlist-control condition, mbtr-r was safe and thus not associated with participant-level clinically significant deterioration in any of the monitored primary mental health outcomes at post-intervention or at follow-up. in the event of adverse responding, the investigators planned to test whether key demographic factors or pre-existing vulnerability factors at pre-intervention that may predict participant-level deterioration or adverse responding to the intervention - so as to identify candidate contraindications for mbtr-r. aim iii: the investigators predicted that, relative to a waitlist control condition, mbtr-r will lead to changes in psycho-behavioral processes targeted by the intervention and implicated in vulnerability at pre-intervention, from pre-to-post intervention, measured in controlled behavioral and cognitive-experimental lab tasks or experience sampling measures, including measures of (a) self-compassion and self-criticism, (b) self-referential processing of fear, (c) avoidance, (d) emotional reactivity to trauma-related information and autobiographical memory, (e) impaired executive functions of trauma-related information processing in working memory. aim iv: the investigators aimed to test whether, among the mbtr-r group, pre-to-post-intervention change and pre-intervention to follow-up change in mental health outcomes (aim i) will be predicted or mediated by pre-to-post intervention change in the targeted psycho-behavioral processes.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * eritrean refugee or asylum seeker living in israel exclusion criteria: * active suicidality * current psychotic symptoms * current mental health treatment (e.g. psychotherapy, participation in psycho-social support group)

Keywords: asylum seekers, anxiety, compassion, depression, mindfulness, ptsd, post-migration stress, refugees, trauma