Katy Robjant|Rita Hassan|Cornelius Katona
Mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers: systematic review
West London Mental Health NHS Trust|Maudsley Hospital|University of Canterbury|University of Kent
number asylum seekers refugees internally displaced people worldwide rising western countries using increasingly restrictive policies including detention asylum seekers concern harmfulto investigate mental health outcomes among adult child adolescent immigration detaineesa systematic review conducted studies investigating impact immigration detention mental health children adolescents adults identified systematic search databases supplementary manual search referencesten studies identified reported high levels mental health problems detainees anxiety depression posttraumatic stress disorder commonly reported selfharm suicidal ideation time detention positively associated severity distress evidence initial improvement mental health occurring subsequent release although longitudinal results shown negative impact detention persiststhis area research infancy studies limited methodological constraints findings consistently report high levels mental health problems among detainees evidence suggest independent adverse effect detention mental health