Upon Rejection: Psychiatric Emergencies of Failed Asylum Seekers.

Schoretsanitis, Georgios; Bhugra, Dinesh; Eisenhardt, Sarah; Ricklin, Meret; Srivastava, David Shiva; Exadaktylos, Aristomenis; Walther, Sebastian (2018). Upon Rejection: Psychiatric Emergencies of Failed Asylum Seekers. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(7) MDPI 10.3390/ijerph15071498

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The status of a refugee or asylum seeker is only recognised after legal processes. The uncertainty of these procedures or the rejection itself may severely impact mental well-being. We surveyed the patterns of psychiatric services used by patients whose applications for asylum had been rejected. In a retrospective investigation of admissions to the University Emergency Department in Bern, Switzerland between 1 March 2012 and 28 February 2017, we studied patients receiving a psychiatric consultation after their applications had been rejected. The primary endpoint was based on the comparison of these individuals with controls who were asylum seekers with pending asylum applications using the Mann-Whitney test and the chi-square test (χ²) with a significance level of 0.05. Thirty-eight cases were identified. There were more men than women and the mean age was 30.08 ± 9.62 years. Patients predominantly presented as walk-in patients ( = 16, 42.1%), most frequently due to suicidal ideation ( = 16, 42.1%). Stress-related disorders were the most common diagnosis ( = 29, 76.3%) and patients were mainly referred to inpatient treatment ( = 28, 73.7%). Patients with rejected applications were less likely to be living in reception centres than patients with a pending application (χ² = 17.98, < 0.001). : The profile of asylum seekers whose applications had been rejected reflects individuals with high-stress levels, potentially aggravated by the negative asylum decision.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Translational Research Center
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Anaesthesiology (DINA) > University Emergency Center
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Head Organs and Neurology (DKNS) > Clinic of Neurology
04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

UniBE Contributor:

Schoretsanitis, Georgios, Eisenhardt, Sarah, Ricklin, Meret Elisabeth, Srivastava, David Shiva, Exadaktylos, Aristomenis, Walther, Sebastian

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1661-7827

Publisher:

MDPI

Language:

English

Submitter:

Sebastian Walther

Date Deposited:

11 Dec 2018 10:26

Last Modified:

07 Aug 2024 15:45

Publisher DOI:

10.3390/ijerph15071498

PubMed ID:

30012985

Uncontrolled Keywords:

acute stress failed asylum seekers psychiatric emergency services psychiatric hospitalisation

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.122045

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/122045

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