The biggest problem however is among women, according to Dr. Paul Mahoro, who, in research estimates presented Wednesday indicates that 60 percent have to live with trauma.
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is also on the increase especially among those under 35 years, according to the findings. PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can occur when we experience or witness a life-threatening event such as abuse, natural disaster and war.
Available statistics suggest that although there is no exact official figure, estimates show that 1 in 5 of the population, or up to 1 million people lost their lives in the 1994 Tutsi Genocide.
While it is not surprising that many survivors developed post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), not all of them did. However, why such a situation should be so has also been disturbing researchers for the last 16 years.
International researchers at the University Konstanz in Germany last month released a major study showing a link between the genetic state of Genocide survivors and the levels of trauma they experience.
As anticipated, these researchers found a “dose-response” relationship between traumatic load and prevalence of lifetime PTSD. This means that the higher the traumatic load, the higher the chance of developing PTSD, according to Dr. Kolassa, writing in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
But they also found something else: a variant of a gene that codes for the enzyme catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) appears to play a role in this relationship. The variant is called the COMT Val158Met polymorphism and has already been implicated in previous studies that linked it to fear extinction.
Carriers of the Met/Met version of the gene (ie they inherited Met from both parents) showed a high risk of developing PTSD independently of their traumatic load, whereas carriers who had at least one Val version of the gene, showed the expected dose-response relationship between traumatic load and risk of developing PTSD.
The COMT enzyme metabolizes the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine which are released during stress, and the researchers suggested that the Met/Met carriers had substantially lower activity of COMT enzyme, leaving them more vulnerable to PTSD independently of traumatic load.
Ministry of health officials told a press conference Wednesday that during this year’s commemoration period due in April, health officials will provide support to people suffering from trauma.