Chronic pain in torture survivors

According to Amnesty International government-sanctioned torture is verifie d in one third of the countries in the world. The physical and psychologica l sequelae are numerous. This study focuses on pain diagnosis, characterisi ng pain types as nociceptive, Visceral or neuropathic. Torture victims from the Middle East, treated at the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Tor ture Victims (RCT) in Copenhagen, participated in the study. The patients w ere referred to a pain specialist for evaluation of unsolved pain problems. Eighteen male torture victims were examined. Twelve patients experienced p ain at more than three locations. Nociceptive and neuropathic pain were dem onstrated in all patients. Specific neuropathic pain conditions were relate d to the following four types of physical torture: Palestinian hanging, fal anga, beating and kicking of the head, and positional torture. When treatin g torture victims, it is important to know about torture methods, to think differently than normal on etiological and pathogenetic factors and always consider the presence of neuropathic pain. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Irelan d Ltd. All rights reserved.