MONDAY, March 5 (HealthDay News) -- Aggressive interrogation tactics, including non-physical methods such as humiliation and sensory discomfort, induce levels of mental anguish and traumatic stress akin to physical torture, according to a report in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
The results call into question a recent U.S. Justice Department memorandum espousing a narrow view of torture that excludes non-physical approaches.
Metin Basoglu, M.D., Ph.D., of King's College, University of London, U.K., and colleagues studied 279 survivors of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, who reported being subjected to torture. Participants were analyzed using the Semi-structured Interview for Survivors of War, the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-IV.
Of 46 stressors measured, 80 percent of participants rated 30 as fairly to extremely distressing. Distress and control scores for both physical and psychological stressors were similar (3.2 to 3.8 for physical torture, 2.9 to 3.7 for psychological manipulations). Physical torture was not a significant predictor of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or of depression. Instead, analyses suggested that the likelihood of PTSD and depression was most strongly associated with the perceived distress and lack of control over the torture stressors, as opposed to the exposure to these stressors per se.
"These findings point to a need for a broader definition of torture based on scientific formulations of traumatic stress and empirical evidence rather than on vague distinctions or labels that are open to endless and inconclusive debate and, most important, potential abuse," the authors write.
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