Psychological Torture: Definition, evaluation and measurement, By Pau Pérez-Sales

Psychiatrist Pau Pérez-Sales has compiled a masterful and thorough analysis of an ambiguous but extremely important topic using a multidisciplinary approach. The book's objectives are to define torture, to build a theoretical framework for understanding and re-defining torture, to propose operational criteria for research, to propose working criteria for deciding whether a case constitutes torture and, finally, to propose adjustments in the Istanbul Protocol for documentation of torture.  The author has accomplished all of these objectives successfully in a book that is well-written and easy to read, even though he draws from the esoteric concepts and language of legal, political, and scientific fields

Psychological, social and welfare interventions for psychological health and well-being of torture survivors

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: Primary objective 1. To assess beneficial and adverse effects of psychological, social and welfare interventions versus no treatment for the reduction of psychological distress in torture survivors. Secondary objectives 2. To describe the quality and generalisability of the studies evaluating the effects of these treatment approaches on torture survivors, and specifically: • to provide an objective assessment of risk of bias in these studies; • to describe the specific populations evaluated in studies of torture survivors (including demographics, torture experiences and psychological status); • to describe the variety of interventions that have been evaluated in these populations; and • to describe the outcomes evaluated in these intervention studies

Cultural logics of emotion: Implications for understanding torture and its sequelae

This paper explores the significance of cultural variations in emotion for the meaning and impact of torture, focusing on the dynamics of shame, humiliation, and powerlessness. Forms of physical and psychological pain and suffering share some common neurobiological pathways and regulatory systems that are influenced by social and cultural factors. All forms of torture follow an affective logic rooted both in human biology and in local social and cultural meanings of experience. Understanding the impact of specific forms of torture on individuals requires knowledge of their learning histories, and of the personal and cultural meanings of specific kinds of violence. Exploring cultural meanings requires attention to over-arching discourse, embodied practices, and everyday engagements with an ecosocial environment. Restitution, treatment and recovery can then be guided by knowledge of cultural meanings, dynamics, and strategies for coping with catastrophic threats, injury, humiliation, helplessness and loss

Psychological, social and welfare interventions for psychological health and well-being of torture survivors

Background: Torture is widespread, with potentially broad and long-lasting impact across physical, psychological, social and other areas of life. Its complex and diverse effects interact with ethnicity, gender, and refugee experience. Health and welfare agencies offer varied rehabilitation services, from conventional mental health treatment to eclectic or needs-based interventions. This review is needed because relatively little outcome research has been done in this field, and no previous systematic review has been conducted. Resources are scarce, and the challenges of providing services can be considerable. Objectives: To assess beneficial and adverse effects of psychological, social and welfare interventions for torture survivors, and to comp are these effects with those reported by active and inactive controls. Search methods: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were identified through a search of PsycINFO, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINA HL), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTR AL) and the Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Specialise d Register (CCDANCTR), the Latin American and Caribbean Health Science Information Database (LILACS), the Open System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (OpenSIGLE), the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) and Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress (PILOTS) all years to 11 April 2013; searches of Cochrane resources, international trial registries and the main biomedical databases were updated on 20 June 2014. We also searched the On line Library of Dignity (Danish Institute against Torture), reference lists of reviews and included studies and the most frequently cited journals, up to April 2013 but not repeated for 2014. Investigators were contacted to provide updates or details as necessary. Selection criteria: Full publications of RCTs or quasi-RCTs of psychological, social or welfare interventions for survivors of torture against any active or inactive comparison condition. Data collection and analysis: We included all major sources of grey literature in our search and used standard methodological procedures as expected by The Cochrane Collaboration for collecting data, evaluating risk of bias and using GRADE (Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) methods to assess the quality of evidence. Main results: Nine RCTs were included in this review. All were of psychological interventions; none provided social or welfare interventions. The nine trials provided data for 507 adults; none involved children or adolescents. Eight of the nine studies described individual treatment, and one discussed group treatment. Six trials were conducted in Europe, and three in different African countries. Most people were refugees in their thirties and forties; most met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the outset. Four trials used narrative exposure therapy (NET), one cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT ) and the other four used mixed methods for trauma symptoms, one of which included reconciliation methods. Five interventions were compared with active controls, such as psychoeducation; four used treatment as usual or waiting list/no treatment; we analysed all control conditions together. Duration of therapy varied from one hour to longer than 20 hours with a median of around 12 to 15 hours. All trials reported effects on distress and on PTSD, and two reported on quality of life. Five studies followed up participants for at least six months. No immediate benefits of psychological therapy were noted in comparison with controls in terms of our primary outcome of distress (usually depression), nor for PTSD symptoms, PTSD caseness, or quality of life. At six-month follow-up, three NET and one CBT study (86 participants) showed moderate effect sizes for intervention over control in reduction of distress (standardised me an difference (SMD) -0.63, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.07 to -0.19) and of PTSD symptoms (SMD -0.52, 95% CI -0.97 to -0.07). However, the quality of evidence was very low, and risk of bias resulted from researcher/therapist allegiance to treatment methods, effects of uncertain asylum status of some people and real-time non-standardised translation of assessment measures. No measures of adverse events were described, nor of participation, social functioning, quantity of social or family relationships, proxy measures by third parties or satisfaction with treatment. Too few studies were identified for review authors to attempt sensitivity analyses. Authors’ conclusions: Very low-quality evidence suggests no differences between psychological therapies and controls in terms of immediate effects on post- traumatic symptoms, distress or quality of life; however, NET and CBT were found to confer moderate benefits in reducing dis tress and PTSD symptoms over the medium term (six months after treatment). Evidence was of very low quality, mainly because non- standardised assessment methods using interpreters were applied, and sample sizes were very small. Most eligible trials also revealed medium to high risk of bias. Further, attention to the cultural appropriateness of interventions or to their psychometric qualities was inadequate, and assessment measures used were unsuitable. As such, these findings should be interpreted with caution. No data were available on whether symptom reduction enabled improvements in quality of life, participation in community life, or in social and family relationships in the medium term. Details of adverse events and treatment satisfaction were not available immediately after treatment nor in the medium term. Future research should aim to address these gaps in the evidence and should include larger sample sizes when possible. Problems of torture survivors need to be defined far more broadly than by PTSD symptoms, and re cognition given to the contextual influences of being a torture survivor, including as an asylum seeker or refugee, on psychological and social health

The relationship between claw morphology and predatory ecology in birds of prey

Birds of Prey, also known as Raptors, differ in their ecology. Previous work has found relationships between claw curvature and predatory behavior, however it has not considered overall differences in claw shape between species. A sample of 167 claws from 15 species including diurnal and nocturnal raptors was collected from the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) and North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh). X-ray images were taken in lateral view, and a series of 14 coplanar landmarks were place on each claw using TPSdig. The relationship between shape data and ecological variables were explored using MorphoJ software. Analyses included Principle Component Analysis (PCA), Canonical Variates Analysis (CVA) and a two-block Partial Least Squares (PLS). The majority of variations in claw shape occurs in the shape of the tubercle, nail curvature, and the proportion of nail length and body size in the claw. The PCA showed that the flexor tubercle and depth of the nail body yield the most change in claw morphology. The CVA presented a relationship between claw morphology and raptor mass, wingspan, length, and prey mass. Linear variables, such as raptor body length, were found not as significant as other variables. The results show that claw characteristics of certain species also correlate with ecological factors and hunting strategies. The correlation between claw shape and prey mass show that species with a deeper tubercle and smaller nail angle are significantly related to a larger prey mass. In addition, species that have a smaller prey mass have a different claw morphology: shallow tubercle and large nail angle. Prey mass may be more important than the actual prey identity, as there is considerable overlap among the different prey types. The PLS results suggest that particular combinations of nail and body shape covary, which is related to predatory strategy. One species, Pandion haliaetus (osprey), is significantly different from all other species in the sample. Ospreys are piscivores that have a specialized hunting strategy; however, they are also the largest species in this sample, which may affect the results. This research further elucidates the relationship between claw shape and hunting behavior in birds of prey. These results may also be used to make inferences about predatory behavior in theropod dinosaurs, which are close relatives of birds.