Mental Health
Quantifying the Mental Health Impacts of Trauma Exposure among Mental Health Service Users in Lebanon Jennifer Majer* Jennifer Majer Jihane Bou Sleiman Georges Mouawad Fadi Daccache Abdel Karim Khader Georgia Karoutzou Fatima Khachfe Katarzyna Wyka Tania Bosqui
Background
The prevalence of PTSD is well-documented, but broader mental health impacts of traumatic events in lower- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs) and complex emergency contexts like Lebanon remain underexplored. This study uses mental health case management data from International Medical Corps (IMC) in a quasi-experimental design. It leverages two traumatic events—the Beirut Port Explosion (October 2020) and the 2024 war in Lebanon—as natural experiments to evaluate trauma’s mental health impact.
Methods
Key research questions are: 1) What are the immediate and short-term mental health impacts of the Beirut Port Explosion on client functioning? 2) How does conflict-related trauma from the 2024 war affect functioning? Primary outcomes include Client Functioning Scale (CFS) scores, assessed through baseline, follow-up, and discharge scores. Two quasi-experimental approaches were used to analyze trauma exposure impacts: 1) Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) compared outcomes immediately before and after the Beirut Port Explosion. 2) Interrupted Time Series (ITS) tracked deviations in functioning scores over predefined intervals for both events.
Results
Results from one health facility located in Bekaa governorate (January 2018–October 2024) show that of 1,062 patients, functioning scores dropped significantly post-Beirut Port Explosion by an estimated 8 points (7.99, 95% CI: 2.99–12.99, p = 0.002) in RDD analysis (Fig Panel A). ITS analysis reveals an average decline of 4.8 points (Fig Panel B).
Conclusions
This study aims to address critical gaps in understanding trauma’s mental health impacts, providing actionable insights for policymakers to strengthen prevention, mitigation, and post-trauma interventions. Additional analyses will explore variation in the effects depending on geography and social determinants of mental health, as well as the impact of these events on severe mental health disorders, such as Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder.
