Psychiatric reports for refugees facing deportation require considerable skills from the medical practitioner. Language difficulties and western concepts of psychiatric disorders complicate the diagnostic assessment. Pharmacological and psychological treatments for posttraumatic stress and depression are not sufficiently validated for refugee populations. Frequently, questions about treatment facilities for a refugee in his country of origin or about the psychological consequences of deportation cannot be answered satisfactorily. Deportation in itself has a major impact on an individual's life and can have terrible consequences. Society has to decide if deportation is ethically acceptable.

Migration Deportation Refugee Psychiatric report posttraumatic stress

diagnostic accuracy linguistics social aspect depression general practitioner refugee health care facility concept formation Article validation process psychotherapy mental disease human ethics life event posttraumatic stress disorder