Mental health of internally displaced persons: a meta-analysis

Although most forcibly displaced individuals remain within their country of origin, internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain under-represented in mental health research. We estimated the prevalence of mental disorders among IDPs and compared prevalence and psychosocial functioning with non-displaced controls.

We searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Web of Science for peer-reviewed reports published until 20 June 2025 in any language. We included studies on point prevalence of mental disorders in adult IDPs as assessed with validated measurements based on the International Classification of Diseases or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Studies had to assess mental disorders in at least 100 participants at least 1 month postdisplacement. For studies that included non-displaced control groups, we also assessed other mental-health-related outcomes. All analyses used a random effects model. The protocol was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42024596202.

We identified 20774 unique study reports, of which 132 (124 independent datasets and 195 741 participants, with 61.3% female IDPs) met our inclusion criteria. The estimated pooled prevalence of current post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was 39.8% (95% CI 34.9% to 44.8%; I²=98.9%), depression 35.8% (95% CI 27.0% to 45.8%; I²=99.3%), generalised anxiety disorder 29.4% (95% CI 20.3% to 40.5%; I²=99.4%), insomnia 38.6% (95% CI 33.2% to 44.2%; I²=95.5%), panic disorder 6.0% (95% CI 2.7% to 12.9%; I²=95.9%), alcohol use disorder 2.2% (95% CI 0.1% to 6.2%; I²=97.3%) and suicidality 9.2% (95% CI 1.3% to 44.1%; I²=99.2%). The odds of PTSD and depression compared with non-displaced controls were increased by 70%-117% and IDPs reported significantly higher somatic complaints and general distress and lower psychosocial well-being. Displacement cause and socioeconomic conditions in the affected countries insufficiently explained the large heterogeneity in findings. High risk of selection and outcome measurement bias was observed.

The results highlight the mental health burden in IDPs, which calls for scalable and sustainable interventions. The findings further indicate that estimates vary substantially across contexts.