Depression rates among women in Darfur lower than in other conflicts?

International Medical Corps recently released a report on depression rates among women in a Darfurian IDP camp. The report found that 31% suffered from Major Depressive Disorder, while 63% showed the emotional symptoms of depression.

Yet, as Ms. Magazine pointed out, depression rates are often much higher in other areas ravaged by conflict or genocide. For example, in 2004, a study found Major Depressive Disorder rates in Afghanistan were at about 70% for the general population, and even higher for women-- more than twice the rates found in Darfur. This seems somewhat puzzling at first. After all, Darfur is one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time!

But the Ms. Magazine article also hypothesized about the causes of this strange inconsistency:

The recent Darfur Medical Corps study was conducted in a camp where people were already receiving aid; additionally, the camp had excellent conditions, compared to other refugee and IDP camps. Therefore, the mental conditions of the majority of Darfurians who still are not receiving aid-- and are still displaced, hungry and homeless in Darfur-- are incalculably worse than the statistics reveal.

These same demographic inconsistencies plague many media reports on Darfur that I've read: journalists and statisticians can often only gain access to refugee camps, sometimes as far away as Chad, because of unsafe conditions in Darfur; yet they present their findings as representative of all the genocide's victims. In reality, although there are still grave issues within camps, conditions must be incomparably horrible in Darfur, where basic survival can be an insurmountable challenge.

This is certainly something to keep in mind when reading media and statistical reports from "Darfur"...or the camps nearby.