General practitioners' knowledge of psychotraumatism in Burkina Faso in a context of security challenges

Post-traumatic stress disorders are psychiatric disorders that arise after a traumatic event. They result in moral suffering and physical complications that profoundly alter personal, social and professional life. Our main objective was to study general practitioners (GP)' knowledge of psychotraumatism. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study whose data collection took place from January 15 to September 15, 2023 in Burkina Faso. GP practicing in Burkina Faso were included. The minimum number of subjects to be included was 422. A Google Form ^® questionnaire was administered to participants. Our study sample comprised 427 GP, 67% of whom were men (284/427). The mean age of the doctors was 32.4 ± 3.5 years. Doctors were married in 49% of cases (208/427) and single in 41% (174/427). Average professional experience was 3.8 ± 2.6 years. The largest number of GP (120) came from the Centre region. A minority of GP practiced in rural areas (7%). The majority of GP (63%) thought they had already dealt with a case of psychotraumatism. Our sample had received training in psychotraumatism during their medical studies in 26.9% of cases, and 17.8% had received continuing education. Considering the grading of GP' knowledge of psychotraumatism, 182 had an average score of 10 or above, i.e. 43% of our sample. Our study did not reveal any factors associated with better knowledge of psychotraumatism. A study on a larger population including nurses could enable us to better assess the level of knowledge in psychotraumatism.