Tinnitus among Cambodian refugees: Relationship to PTSD severity

✍ Scribed by Devon E. Hinton; Dara Chhean; Vuth Pich; Stefan G. Hofmann; David H. Barlow

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 102 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-9867
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.20138

✦ Synopsis

Consecutive Cambodian refugees attending a psychiatric clinic were assessed for the presence and severity of current tinnitus (i.e., at least one episode in the last month). Fifty percent (52/104) of surveyed patients had tinnitus. Among the tinnitus patients, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rates were significantly more elevated than among nontinnitus patients (OR = 13.5; 95% CI = 5.8 to 39.4), as were Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) scores. In a hierarchical regression among tinnitus patients (n = 52), tinnitus-related trauma associations and catastrophic cognitions accounted for variability in CAPS severity beyond a measure of tinnitus severity. Among tinnitus patients, tinnitus-related trauma associations and catastrophic cognitions mediated the effect of tinnitus severity on CAPS severity.

During Khmer Rouge rule (1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979), approximately 1.7 million of Cambodia's 7.9 million people died (Kiernan, 2002, p. 457). Surveys of Cambodian refugees in psychiatric clinics in the United States document very high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; 56%;