The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis’ Jean-Francois Trani focuses his research on the most vulnerable in war-torn countries.
With the United States and affiliated NATO troops preparing to pull out of war-torn Afghanistan by the end of 2014, attention will continue to focus on the 12-year war and the aftermath on its citizens.
But a new study on mental health in Afghanistan looks beyond the effects of war and identifies the root causes of mental distress and anxiety among its citizens: poverty and vulnerability.
“War exposure is undisputedly a factor of mental distress and anxiety, but other predictors, such as poverty and vulnerability, are stronger and probably more persistent risk factors that have not received deserved attention in policy decisions,” says Jean-Francois Trani, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School and lead author of a new study published in the online first edition of Transcultural Psychiatry.