Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Home
  • Home
Article
  • Cited by 190

  • Access

Mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers: systematic review

  • Katy Robjant (a1), Rita Hassan (a2) and Cornelius Katona (a3)

Abstract

Background

The number of asylum seekers, refugees and internally displaced people worldwide is rising. Western countries are using increasingly restrictive policies, including the detention of asylum seekers, and there is concern that this is harmful.

Aims

To investigate mental health outcomes among adult, child and adolescent immigration detainees.

Method

A systematic review was conducted of studies investigating the impact of immigration detention on the mental health of children, adolescents and adults, identified by a systematic search of databases and a supplementary manual search of references.

Results

Ten studies were identified. All reported high levels of mental health problems in detainees. Anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder were commonly reported, as were self-harm and suicidal ideation. Time in detention was positively associated with severity of distress. There is evidence for an initial improvement in mental health occurring subsequent to release, although longitudinal results have shown that the negative impact of detention persists.

Conclusions

This area of research is in its infancy and studies are limited by methodological constraints. Findings consistently report high levels of mental health problems among detainees. There is some evidence to suggest an independent adverse effect of detention on mental health.

  • View HTML

      • Send article to Kindle

      To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about sending to your Kindle.

      Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

      Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

      Mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers: systematic review
      Available formats
      ×

      Send article to Dropbox

      To send this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Dropbox.

      Mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers: systematic review
      Available formats
      ×

      Send article to Google Drive

      To send this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Google Drive.

      Mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers: systematic review
      Available formats
      ×

Copyright

COPYRIGHT: © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2009 

Corresponding author

Correspondence: Katy Robjant, Traumatic Stress Service, Clinical Treatment Centre, Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ, UK. Email: katy.robjant@thh.nhs.uk

Footnotes

Hide All

Declaration of interest

None.

Footnotes

References

Hide All
1 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Refugees by Numbers 2006 Edition. UNHCR, 2006.
2 Silove, D, Steel, Z, Watters, C. Policies of deterrence and the mental health of asylum seekers. JAMA 2000; 284: 604–11.
3 Heath, T, Jeffries, R, Pearce, S. Asylum statistics United Kingdom 2005. Home Office Statistical Bulletin 2006; 22 August: 1–90 (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb1406.pdf).
4 Sinnerbrink, I, Silove, D, Field, A, Steel, Z, Manicavasagar, V. Compounding of premigration trauma and postmigration stress in asylum seekers. J Psychol 1997; 131: 463–70.
5 Porter, M, Haslam, N. Predisplacement and postdisplacement factors associated with mental health of refugees and internally displaced persons. A meta-analysis. JAMA 2005; 294: 602–12.
6 Silove, D, Steel, Z, McGorry, P, Mohan, P. Psychiatric symptoms and living difficulties in Tamil asylum seekers: comparisons with refugees and immigrants. Acta Psychiatr Scand 1998; 97: 175–81.
7 Laban, CJ, Gernaat, H, Komproe, IH, Schreuders, BA, De Jong, J. Impact of a long asylum procedure on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in Iraqi asylum seekers in the Netherlands. J Nerv Ment Dis 2004; 192: 843–51.
8 Fazel, M, Silove, D. Detention of refugees. BMJ 2006; 332: 251–2.
9 Pourgourides, CK, Sashidharan, SP, Bracken, PJ. A Second Exile: The Mental Health Implications of Detention of Asylum Seekers in the United Kingdom. North Birmingham NHS Trust, 1996.
10 Keller, AS, Rosenfeld, B, Trinh-Shvrin, C, Meserve, C, Sachs, E, Leviss, J, et al. Mental health of detained asylum seekers. Lancet 2003; 362: 1721–3.
11 Salinsky, M. Detaining asylum seekers. BMJ 1997; 314: 456.
12 Koopowitz, LF, Abhary, S. Psychiatric aspects of detention: illustrative case studies. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2004; 38: 495–500.
13 Fazel, M, Stein, A. UK immigration law disregards the best interests of children. Lancet 2004; 363: 1749–50.
14 Steel, Z, Silove, D. Science and the common good: indefinite, non-reviewable mandatory detention of asylum seekers and the research imperative. Monash Bioeth Rev 2004; 23: 93–102.
15 Bracken, P, Gorst-Unsworth, C. The mental state of detained asylum seekers. Psychiatr Bull 1991; 15: 657–9.
16 Arnold, FW, Beeks, M, Fluxman, J, Katona, C, de Zulueta, F. Unmet medical needs in detention. BMJ Rapid Response 2006.
17 Sultan, A, O'Sullivan, K. Psychological disturbances in asylum seekers held in long term detention: a participant-observer account. Med J Austr 2001; 175: 593–6.
18 Thompson, M, McGorry, P. Maribyrnong Detention Centre Tamil survey. In The Mental Health and Wellbeing of On Shore Asylum Seekers in Australia (eds Silove, D., Steel, Z): 27–30. University of New South Wales, Psychiatry Research and Teaching Unit, 1998.
19 Steel, Z, Silove, D, McGorry, P, Mohan, P. The Tamil survey. In The Mental Health and Wellbeing of On Shore Asylum Seekers in Australia (eds Silove, D, Steel, Z): 13–18. University of New South Wales, Psychiatry Research and Teaching Unit, 1998.
20 Mollica, RF, Caspi-Yavin, Y, Bollini, P, Truong, T, Tor, S, Lavelle, J. The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. Validating a cross-cultural instrument for measuring torture, trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in Indochinese refugees. J Nerv Ment Dis 1992; 180: 111–6.
21 Mollica, RF, Wyshak, G, de Marneffe, D, Khoun, F, Lavelle, J. Indochinese versions of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist–25: a screening instrument for the psychiatric care of refugees. Am J Psychiatry 1987; 144: 497–500.
22 Beiser, M, Fleming, JAE. Measuring psychiatric disorder among Southeast Asian refugees. Psychol Med 1986; 16: 627–39.
23 Steel, Z, Silove, D, Brooks, R, Momartin, S, Alzuhairi, B, Susljik, I. Impact of immigration detention and temporary protection on the mental health of refugees. Br J Psychiatry 2006; 188: 58–64.
24 Gandek, B, Ware, JE, Aaronson, NK, Apolone, G, Bjorner, JB, Brazier, JE, et al. Cross-validation of item selection and scoring for the SF–12 Health Survey in nine countries: results from the IQOLA Project. International Quality of Life Assessment. J Clin Epidemiol 1998; 51: 1171–8.
25 Steel, Z, Momartin, S, Bateman, C, Hafshejani, A, Silove, D. Psychiatric status of asylum seeker families held for a protracted period in a remote detention centre in Australia. Aust N Z J Public Health 2004; 28: 527–36.
26 Momartin, S, Steel, Z, Coello, M, Aroche, J, Silove, D, Brooks, R. A comparison of the mental health of refugees with temporary versus permanent protection visas. Med J Austr 2006; 185: 357–61.
27 Goldberg, DP, Williams, P. A User's Guide to the General Health Questionnaire. nferNelson, 1988.
28 Mares, S, Jureidini, J. Psychiatric assessment of children and families in immigration detention clinical, administrative and ethical issues. Aust N Z J Public Health 2004; 28: 520–6.
29 First, MB, Spitzer, RL, Gibbon, M, Williams, JBW. Structured Clinical Interview for DSM–V Axis I Disorders Administration Booklet. American Psychiatric Press, 1997.
30 Kaufman, J, Birmaher, B, Brent, D, Rao, U, Flynn, C, Moreci, P, et al. Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school age children – present and lifetime version (K–SADS–PL): initial reliability and validity data. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 1997; 36: 980–8.

Related content

Powered by UNSILO
Type Description Title
PDF
Supplementary materials

Robjant et al. supplementary material
Supplementary Table S1

 PDF (41 KB)
41 KB
  • Cited by 190

  • Access

Mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers: systematic review

  • Katy Robjant (a1), Rita Hassan (a2) and Cornelius Katona (a3)

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between <date>. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

  • Cited by 190

  • Access

Mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers: systematic review

  • Katy Robjant (a1), Rita Hassan (a2) and Cornelius Katona (a3)
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.

×

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

Conflicting interests

Do you have any conflicting interests? *