Abstract
Little research has focused on torture survivors’ re-traumatization experiences in health and hospital units that treat somatic diseases, though any medical procedure can re-traumatize survivors. This study’s purpose was to summarize qualitative research evidence on torture survivors’ somatic healthcare experiences and to identify “triggers” or “reminders” that can lead to re-traumatization. The study’s search strategies identified 6,326 citations and eight studies, comprising data from 290 participants, exploring encounters with healthcare providers from torture survivors’ perspectives, which were included in the present research. Dallam’s Healthcare Retraumatization Model was used as a framework for data extraction and analysis. Five main themes were elicited from the findings: (1) invisibility, silence, and mistrust; (2) healthcare providers’ attitudes and a lack of perceived quality in healthcare; (3) disempowerment; (4) avoidance; and (5) satisfaction and gratitude. An analysis of the study’s findings revealed that torture survivors do not receive adequate healthcare and may experience challenges during treatment that can result in re-traumatization. The findings of this literature review provide a basis for understanding the difficulties that survivors experience in receiving somatic healthcare, as well as an explanation of the re-traumatization process.
Highlights
Refugees and asylum seekers may face several challenges in adapting to a new country, and many have witnessed or experienced multiple traumatizing events that constitute exposure to torture [1,2,3,4,5]
According to Amnesty International in 2015–16, torture is practiced in over 140 countries worldwide, and torture survivors constitute a significant group among asylum seekers and refugees [2, 7,8,9], estimated at 5% to 35% [1]
The present review was limited to primary qualitative research studies that were available in several languages, which Table 1 shows, exploring encounters with healthcare providers from torture survivors’ perspectives
Summary
Refugees and asylum seekers may face several challenges in adapting to a new country, and many have witnessed or experienced multiple traumatizing events that constitute exposure to torture [1,2,3,4,5]. Torture exposure is significantly associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [2, 3, 7, 13,14,15,16,17], and torture is considered one of the most traumatizing exposures, with a high risk of developing mental health symptoms and, later, PTSD [6, 16,17,18,19,20] Such mental health problems as memory disturbances, difficulty in concentrating, lack of energy, sexual dysfunction, emotional irritability, loss of trust, insomnia, nightmares, phobias [12, 21], depression [1], anxiety, and psychosis [18] are common among torture survivors. The most common somatic consequences of torture are neuropsychological pathology, broken bones, joint and muscle pain, headaches, dizziness, burns, and hearing loss [15, 19, 20, 22]
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