The psychological impact of torture

Refugees with a history of torture may have a wide range of psychological and social difficulties which do not easily fit within diagnostic categories.Torture and its sequelae can have multiple meanings and, in the clinical context, it is the interpretation of the torture survivor that matters.There are doubts about applying the concept and measures of post-traumatic stress disorder: symptoms should be assessed separately.Current circumstances can be as important as trauma history in understanding the psychological state of a torture survivor.Cognitive behavioural therapy and narrative exposure therapy seem equally effective in reducing trauma symptoms, and to a lesser extent, depression.