Browsing by Author "Oyok, Thomas O."

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    Post traumatic stress disorder among former child soldiers attending a rehabilitative service and primary school education in northern Uganda.
    (African health sciences, 2008) Ovuga, Emilio; Oyok, Thomas O.; Moro, E.B.
    This study was prompted by the psychiatric hospitalization of 12 former child soldiers of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) at a rehabilitation school in northern Uganda with a case of mass psychotic behavior. Objectives: To report the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, depressed mood, and associated risk factors. Methods: Data on post-traumatic stress disorder, depressed mood, physical disabilities, socio-demographic variables, and the children’s war experiences were collected in face-to-face interviews using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), a modified Hopkins Symptoms Check-List (HSCL), and a 15-item War Trauma Experience Check-list (WTECL-15). Data was analyzed with SPSS version 11.0. Results: There were 58 girls and 44 boys. Eighty nine children (87.3%) reported having experienced ten or more war-related traumatic psychological events; 55.9% of the children suffered from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, 88.2%, symptoms of depressed mood and 21.6% had various forms of physical disability. Nearly half of the children (42.2%) reported a positive family history of severe mental illness; 10.8%, a family history of suicide; 22.5%, a family history of suicide attempt; and 45.1%, a family history of alcohol abuse. Children who experienced 10 or more traumatic war events were more likely than the rest to experience depressed mood. Return through a reception center or through a cleansing ritual did not protect against depression. Discussion: Post-traumatic stress disorder among former LRA child soldiers at a rehabilitation centre in northern Uganda is presented. The report highlights the huge unmet need for psychological services among former child soldiers of the LRA.
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    Reliability and validity of the center for epidemiologic studies-depression scaleinscreening for depression among HIV-infected and -uninfected pregnant women attending antenatal services in northern Uganda: a cross-sectional study
    (BMC Psychiatry, 2014) Natamba, Barnabas K.; Achan, Jane; Arbach, Angela; Oyok, Thomas O.; Ghosh, Shibani; Mehta, Saurabh; Stoltzfus, Rebecca J.; Griffiths, Jeffrey K.; Young, Sera L.
    Background: There are limited data on the prevalence and approaches to screening for depression among pregnant women living in resource poor settings with high HIV burden. Methods: We studied the reliability and accuracy of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale in 123 (36 HIV-infected and 87 -uninfected) pregnant women receiving antenatal care at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda. CES-D scores were compared to results from the psychiatrist-administered Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) for current major depressive disorder (MDD), a “gold standard” for assessingdepression. We employed measures of internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha), and criterion validity [Area Underthe Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUROC), sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp), and positive predictive value(PPV)] to evaluate the reliability and validity of the CES-D scale. Results: 35.8% of respondents were currently experiencing an MDD, as defined from outputs of the MINI-depression module. The CES-D had high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.92) and good discriminatory ability in detecting MINI-defined current MDDs (AUROC = 0.82). The optimum CES-D cutoff score for the identification of probable MDD was between 16 and 17. A CES-D cutoff score of 17, corresponding to Se, Sp, and PPV values of 72.7%, 78.5%, and 76.5%, is proposed for adoption in this population and performs well for HIV-infected and -uninfected women. Afteradjusting for baseline differences between the HIV subgroups (maternal age and marital status), HIV-infectedpregnant women scored 6.2 points higher on the CES-D than HIV-uninfected women (p = 0.032).Conclusions: The CES-D is a suitable instrument for screening for probable major depression among pregnant womenof mixed HIV status attending antenatal services in northern Uganda.