The article describes symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTSD among Bosnian (n=17) and Colombian (n=17) torture survivors served by the Florida Center for Survivors of Torture, a programme of Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, Inc. Information from clients enrolled in the programme for six months or more was collated over a 14 month period in order to better prioritize and design services for ...

OBJECTIVES This paper seeks to explore the potential value of qigong and t'ai chi practice as a therapeutic intervention to aid in the treatment of survivors of torture and refugee trauma. DESIGN The common effects of torture and refugee trauma are surveyed with a focus on post-traumatic stress disorder. An alternative theoretical framework for conceptualizing and healing trauma is presented....

BACKGROUND In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, the government authorized the use of "enhanced interrogation" techniques that were previously recognized as torture. While the complicity of US health professionals in the design and implementation of US torture practices has been documented, little is known about the role of health providers, assigned to the US Department of D...

In this paper, I argue for the permissibility of torture in idealized cases by application of separation of cases: if torture is permissible given any of the dominant moral theories (and if one of those is correct), then torture is permissible simpliciter and I can discharge the tricky business of trying to adjudicate among conflicting moral views. To be sure, torture is not permissible on all ...

Freedom from Torture is a UK-based human rights organisation dedicated to the treatment and rehabilitation of torture survivors. The organisation has been working towards the development of a clinical outcome tool for a number of years, and the purpose of this paper is to (a) describe the process of developing the tool and the final tool itself, and (b) to outline the system which Freedom from ...

The Manual on Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, commonly known as the Istanbul Protocol, is an interdisciplinary standard supported by, among others, the United Nations and the World Medical Association. It aims at aiding the fight against torture by giving clear guidelines to ensure better and more effective asse...

this volume refreshing. It cannot, however, replace the infectious diseases-oriented texts for complete coverage of each specific disease. In too many countries today, health professionals directly or indirectly inflict needless suffering through their complicity in acts of torture. They participate in crimes such as the falsification of medical reports on prisoners tortured or killed in custod...

Research with survivors of torture has generated considerable variability in prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Multiple risk and resilience factors may affect this variability, increasing or decreasing the likelihood of experiencing psychological distress. This study sought to investigate the effect of several such resilience factors, coping style, social support, cognit...

BACKGROUND The Istanbul Protocol (IP) is the key instrument in the documentation of allegations of torture. However, few scientific studies have evaluated its effectiveness as a tool to assess credibility of allegations of ill-treatment or torture. OBJECTIVE Present data on the credibility of allegations of torture in a sample of 45 Basque people held in short-term incommunicado detention bet...

torture is aimed to create a living dead. pressing systematic control on individuals who are in opposition to the ruling authorities, persons’ sense of self would be damaged. such an aversive situation is caused by intentional human action rather than natural causes. torture occurs in more than 90 countries (abu ghraib prison is a prominent example) however, epidemiologic data are limited. the ...