What Are The Long Consequences Of Abuse And Mistreatment To Those Interned in Guantanamo

Few are thinking about what the long-term human consequences for those held at Gitmo. The truth is we are not only hold people we can't be sure are guilty by our own standards, but we are doing irreparable harm to most of them. The following article documents a frequently documented figure. Of those who are mistreated or tortured, more than 50% suffer the long term psychological effects and permanent neurological damage of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. One third of them will still be very ill in 40 years, effectively a life time sentance to chronic nightmares, impaired relationships, irritability, controlling behavior and rages.
Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health

Long-Term Consequences of Traumatic Experiences: An Assessment of Former Political Detainees in Romania
Dana Bichescu , Maggie Schauer , Evangelia Saleptsi , Adrian Neculau , Thomas Elbert and Frank Neuner


Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health 2005, 1:17 doi:10.1186/1745-0179-1-17


Abstract (provisional)


Published 26 September 2005


Background


Research has suggested that organized violence and torture have long-term psychological effects that persist throughout the lifespan. The present survey aimed at examining the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other disorders and symptoms, all present in old age, as long-term consequences of politically motivated violence in a comparison design.


Methods


A group of former political detainees (N = 59, mean age 73.5 years) who had been arrested by the Romanian communist regime were compared to an age- and gender-matched control group (N = 39). PTSD was assessed using a structured clinical interview (CIDI). The investigation of the clinical profile was further accomplished by self-rating measures for anxiety, depression, and health-related functioning, as well as by clinician-administrated interviews for substance abuse, dissociation, and somatization symptoms.


Results


Lifetime prevalence of PTSD was 54%. In the case of participants left untreated, PTSD persisted, often over four decades, such that current PTSD was diagnosed still in a third of the survivors. Other clinical conditions such as somatization, substance abuse, dissociative disorders, and major depression were also common among the former political detainees and often associated with current PTSD.


Conclusions


Our findings suggest that political detention may have long-term psychological consequences that outlast the changes in the political system.