Emerging evidence suggests that the loss of loved ones under traumatic circumstances is highly prevalent among refugees and asylum seekers. We evaluated the effects of traumatic and multiple losses of family members and friends on psychopathology, disability, and quality of life in Iraqi asylum seekers in the Netherlands, and investigated mediation of these effects through psychopathology. Respondents (N = 294) completed structured Arabic interviews. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The loss of a loved one was reported by 87.6% of the sample. Traumatic and multiple losses of family members independently predicted psychopathology, taking the effects of other traumatic events, postmigration stressors, and sociodemographic characteristics into account. Effects of traumatic and multiple losses on quality of life and disability were either partially or fully mediated by psychopathology. These findings highlight the need to evaluate and treat the effects of the loss of loved ones when working with asylum seekers and refugees as well as to incorporate grief-related psychopathology in diagnostic classifications. Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

Disability psychopathology Multiple loss traumatic loss Quality of life

Netherlands refugee Iraqi Disabled Persons mental health human comorbidity middle aged disabled person war statistics and numerical data life event Iraq Aged death ethnology Mental Disorders human rights abuse Cross-Sectional Studies mental disease quality of life Young Adult asylum seeker cross-sectional study Humans psychology DSM-IV-TR Adolescent male female risk factor Risk Factors Armed Conflicts prevalence sexual abuse Article major clinical study adult posttraumatic stress disorder generalized anxiety disorder disability outcome assessment world health organization structural equation modeling major depression DSM-IV starvation