317 Evidence of severe torture in Zimbabwe, which is experiencing unrest in the weeks leading up to the country’s presidential election in March, has been uncovered by a human rights organisation. A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark, which visited Zimbabwe last month, has reported finding “a series of persons who gave consistent and similar accounts of exposure to torture.” M...

Since Sept 11, 2001, state-sponsored torture has become increasingly accepted and institutionalised, despite its clear illegality; it is now practised in over 100 countries, including 14 of the G20 nations. Physicians’ involvement in torture is especially worrisome, with Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay serving as well-publicised contemporary examples. In the so-called War on Terror, medical compl...

BACKGROUND Most literature on psychological consequences of torture is related to prolonged detention. Psychological consequences of intensive physical and psychological torture in brief detention have not been investigated. The aim of this study is to analyse the psychological impact of torture in short-term incommunicado detention. METHOD A sample of 45 Basque people who had allegedly been ...

UNLABELLED Many refugees in the developed world are survivors of torture and present with health needs without their traumatic experience being disclosed or identified. Chronic pain is a common problem, as are symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and other distress. Current circumstances, particularly poverty, uncertainty about asylum, separation from or loss ...