Isah Musa Fawa,Idris Musa and Aminu Abdullahi

Keywords: PTSD, IDPs, SLU, Ringim

ABSTRACT

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTDS) is a serious, potentially debilitating condition that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a life-threatening event, such as natural disaster, serious accident or any other violent personal assault. It is characterized by symptoms such as, re-experiencing a traumatic event through intrusive distressing recollections, flashbacks, and nightmares. It was estimated at the end of 2006 that Nigeria forms a third of the internally displaced persons in Africa and 10% of IDPs Worldwide, and Ringim town of jigawa state was also inclusive.. The major aim of this study was therefore to assessed the prevalence of PTSD, among internally displaced persons in Ringim town. Using empirical method, A multistage sampling method was employed to gathered among 238 internally displaced persons in Ringim town using pretested structured self- administered questionnaires. The data collected was analyzed using MINITAB version 12.1 statistical software. A total of 238 completed the questionnaires giving a response rate of 100%. The age range of the respondents was from 12 to 89 with a mean± SD of 30.2± 11.6 respectively. Out of the 238 respondents, about 95 (39.92%) of them falls within second to third decade of life which forms the major group, followed by 83(34.87%) of them falls within third to fourth decade..The prevalence of PTSD among the respondents was found to be 59.66% (95% CI of 0.05 to 0.012). This work recommends among others that; Nigerian government and the international community need to strengthen comprehensive protection and social support for IDPs in the camps of northern Nigeria to help reduce mental distress and as a preventative measure to reduce further exposure to trauma.