Rampant post-traumatic stress disorder among North Korean Refugees
Rampant post-traumatic stress disorder among North Korean Refugees
Radio Free Asia reports that a study of post-traumatic stress disorder among North Korean defectors found that they reported certain traumatic events in North Korea with a high frequency.
Most commonly reported were: “witnessing public executions,” followed by “hearing news of the death of a family member or relative due to starvation,” “witnessing a beating,” “witnessing a punishment for political misconduct,” and “death of a family member or relative due to illness.”
The study, published in the international medical journal The Lancet, found symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 29.5 percent of North Koreans in South Korea, compared with a rate of 56 percent found among North Koreans in China in a separate study.
Tags: defector, north korea, post-traumatic stress, refugeeThis entry was posted in North Korean refugee by Grant Montgomery.