Many refugees can’t flee mental ailments
By Bruce Bower
Serious psychiatric disorders now plague many of the more than 100,000 people who in the past decade have fled government persecution in the Asian nation of Bhutan. Refugees who had been tortured have fared particularly poorly, according to a new study of this displaced population.
The only previous mental-health investigation among non-Western refugees, published in 1993, found high levels of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Cambodians who fled to Thailand.