War and Trauma

IDRAAC has been working since its inception on research about war and mental health.
Currently, IDRAAC is working on research projects related to studying the association between temperament and war exposure on mental disorder outcomes. IDRAAC is also studying late onset of mood and anxiety disorders with regards to first onset exposure before the age of 18 years to war and non-war events in addition to childhood adversities. 
In addition, IDRAAC has worked on different community interventions for populations which were affected by war and refugees and is currently investigating the effectiveness of these interventions and the effects of war and traumatic events.
Examples of community interventions  during war periods which are being evaluated for their effectiveness are listed below. To know more, you can click on the following link.  

•      GENMOD Study: which is a classroom-based intervention for PTSD, Depression and Anxiety targeting Lebanese and Syrian students attending public schools in Lebanon. This study also aims at by investigating the molecular genetics of individual differences in Syrian refugee children’s response to acute war-related traumatic experiences and variability in response to psychological intervention of both Lebanese and Syrian children as a function of genetic factors.
•     Addressing the Needs of the Total Assyrian Community in Lebanon: which is a project aimed at addressing the needs of all age groups from the Assyrian refugee community in Lebanon: the children, the adults and the elderly through providing mental health and psychosocial support and capacity building to the Assyrian community workers. The project consisted of different activities such as a classroom-based intervention and a parenting program which served as a means to improve the health and mental health status of this group which has suffered from the effects of war and displacement. IDRAAC is currently investigating the results of the different interventions on the mental health of the beneficiaries.
•     Biological Pathways of Risk and Resilience in Syrian Refugee Children BIOPATH: which aims at investigating the biological underpinnings of individual differences in refugee children’s response to acute war-related trauma exposure. This project studies genetic moderations of interventions related to mental health wellbeing of Syrian and Lebanese children by measuring pre-post changes in psychological variables and identifying specific gene variants in children who are more/less responsive to interventions.
•     Wellbeing of Syrian Refugee Families- mainly Women and Youth-in Lebanon: An Integrated Intervention: which targeted both Syrian refugees and the Lebanese hosting communities and aimed to improve the mental and social wellbeing of Syrian refugee families in Lebanon and enable the Lebanese government to provide support. As a result, the project built the capacity of refugee mothers in developing alternative strategies for parenting children and women benefited from gender-based violence sessions delivered by trained social workers. Students and teachers were also trained on resilience building techniques through a classroom-based intervention to build resilience and positive coping among students which was implemented in schools. IDRAAC is currently investigating the results of this multi-faceted project on the beneficiaries.
•     Turning Teachers Into Educators of Tolerance and Conflict Resolution: which aimed to improve the capacity of public school teachers to become mediators of behavioral change and contribute to build tolerance, decrease violence and conflicts among Syrian refugees and Lebanese students through a classroom-based intervention. IDRAAC is studying the improvement mental disorders outcomes among the beneficiaries of this intervention. 
•     The School Program for Building Resilience and Coping: which aimed at teaching school-age children and adolescents, which are living in areas recently subjected to war, emotional, behavioral and cognitive tools to face stressful situations in daily life. IDRAAC is currently assessing the effectiveness of this intervention among the students, their teachers and parents on various aspects.