ABSTRACT
The Ethiopian Jews who immigrated to Israel from 1 9 79 onwards , 4 had suffered during the past two decades from tremendous traumatic experiences including a civil war and famine
2 8 5
both in Ethiopia and during their migration. Their migration in itself has been a process implying experiences that arouse anxiety and may increase the frequency of psychological problems. 5
It has been found that Ethiopian immigrants seeking assistance at general health clinics , and other service agencies in Israel , typically present their somatic, emotional and psychosocial problems in the form of somatic complaints (such as numbness, crawling sensations in various parts of the body and poorly defined localised aches and pains) . 6 This manner of presenting somatic complaints that are in fact emotionally based, is connected to the ancient culture and well developed systems of traditional medicine in Ethiopia , 7 and is substantially different from western culture ; therefore, often leads to misunderstanding and medical mismanagement in both Israel and Ethiopia. 8
To overcome this type of cross-cultural communication gap the WHO has developed a screening instrument for use in third world developing countries . This instrument, the Self Reporting Ques tionnaire (SRQ) which consists of 2 5 items , was designed to help workers in primary health-care facilities to differentiate between somatic and psychiatric patients . 9
Although the efficacy of this screening instrument has been established in various third world countries, 10 its discriminatory power for Ethiopian patients has been shown to be limited, as it does not take into account typical Ethiopian expressions of distress. 1 1
The findings from a pilot study, carried out i n 1 9 9 3 -4 , enabled us to build a preliminary revised 3 7-item Questionnaire ( the SRQ E) , which does take into account typical Ethiopian expressions of distress .
