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Psychiatric Morbidity in Survivors of Organised State Violence Including Torture

A Retrospective Series

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Rosalind Ramsay ,
Caroline Gorst-Unsworth  and
Stuart Turner
Rosalind Ramsay
Affiliation:
Out-patient Department of Psychological Medicine, University College Hospital, Gower Street, London WC1
Caroline Gorst-Unsworth
Affiliation:
Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, 96–98 Grafton Road, London NWS; Research Associate, University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Stuart Turner*
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine, Wolfson Building, Middlesex Hospital, London W1N 8AA
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

The case notes documenting the psychological well-being of 100 survivors of torture and other forms of organised state violence were analysed retrospectively. The most common diagnoses were post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression, and somatoform disorders. Of these, PTSD showed the strongest association with experience of torture. It is possible that PTSD has a dimensional nature, and that reactions to different stressors are heterogeneous.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 162 , Issue 1 , January 1993 , pp. 55 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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