Rehabilitation of traumatised refugees and survivors of torture

doi:10.1136/bmj.39036.739236.43

BMJ 2006;333:1230-1231 (16 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.39036.739236.43

Editorials

Rehabilitation of traumatised refugees and survivors of torture

After almost two decades we are still not using evidence basedtreatments

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In a 1988 BMJ editorial,¹ Marks and I reviewedthe available knowledge on the mental health effects of tortureand their treatment and presented a critical look at rehabilitationprogrammes for survivors. Eighteen years later, it is time tocast another look at the advances in our understanding of tortureand its treatment and how this progress has translated intorehabilitation work with survivors. Such an update is timely:given the political developments of the last two decades, torturehas become an ever more serious problem.

An important advance in the 1990s was the demonstrationof an association between torture and post-traumatic stressdisorder through controlled studies using standardised assessmentinstruments.² Further work provided insight into the psychologicalmechanisms that played a part in torture-induced post-traumaticstress. In a controlled study survivors who felt that thosethey held responsible for the torture did not receive the punishmentthey deserved were . . . [Full text of this article]

Metin Basoglu, head of trauma studies unit (spjumeb@iop.kcl.ac.uk)

¹ Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London

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Evidence base of exposure-based treatments in PTSD � Do we need more evidence?: Metin Basoglu
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Facts and myths about torture trauma - II: Metin Basoglu
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Re: Facts and myths about torture trauma - II: Sophie Durieux-Paillard
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Treating refugees with PTSD: what should come first, evidence base or ethics?: Ariel Eytan, et al.
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Hiding the truth and ethics � Are they compatible?: Metin Basoglu
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Re: Hiding the truth and ethics � Are they compatible?: Bengt H. Sj�lund
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Encouraging changes in thinking � Have we learned from past mistakes?: Metin Basoglu
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Final response to the argument about torture trauma being different: Metin Basoglu
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