Ouagadougou, Burkinabe and African psychiatrists reflected from March 8 to 11, 2023 on psychotraumas, which are mental disorders that individuals develop after escaping death or after traumatic events such as terrorist attacks .
“Psychotraumas are mental disorders that develop after people have been exposed to death. Psychotrauma comes at a time when the person found themselves alone without an escape route in the face of a traumatic event that brought them very close to death. So he escaped death. After this confrontation, it can follow the development of mental disorders which can be immediate or deferred”, explained the titular professor in Psychiatry, member of the Burkinabè Society of mental health and the African Society of mental health, Kapoune Karfo.
Kapoune Karfo was speaking on Wednesday at the opening of the 6th Congress of the Burkinabè Mental Health Society (SOBUSAM) and the 4th Congress of the African Mental Health Society.
According to him, the health crisis linked to the Coronavirus disease and the terrorist attacks are causing fear and above all disruptions in the social functioning of African countries, leaving traces that are sources of human suffering.
“This congress offers us the opportunity not only to promote the exchange of knowledge and know-how in psychotraumatology, but also to strengthen international scientific cooperation, as well as sub-regional and national exchanges, in the field of training and research in psychotrauma”, according to Professor Karfo.
The Minister in charge of Health, Dr Robert Lucien Jean Claude Kargougou chaired the congress, organized under the theme: “Psychotrauma in the context of health crisis”.
Minister Kargougou reassured the Burkinabé mental health society that the government will step up appropriate measures to ensure better care for psychotrauma victims of the security crisis in the country.
Source: Burkina Information Agency