This mini-feature has been prepared to inform discussions at the first Global Refugee Forum in December 2019. The seven articles have been published as part of Forced Migration Review issue 62 on ‘Return’.

Voluntary return in safety and with dignity has long been a core tenet of the international refugee regime. In the 23 articles on ‘Return’ in this issue of FMR, authors explore various obstacles to achieving sustainable return, discuss the need to guard against premature or forced return, and debate the assumptions and perceptions that influence policy and practice. This issue also includes a mini-feature on ‘Towards understanding and addressing the root causes of displacement’.

Palliative care at the end of life emphasizes quality of life until death, rather than actively pursuing curative treatment. Truth telling at different stages and open dialogue with both the patient and family are key components in palliative care. Children of Holocaust survivors, born after the end of the SecondWorldWar, are often referred to as ‘‘the second-generation’’ survivors (SGS).

The risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following trauma is heritable, but robust common variants have yet to be identified. In a multi-ethnic cohort including over 30,000 PTSD cases and 170,000 controls we conduct a genome-wide association study of PTSD. We demonstrate SNP-based heritability estimates of 5–20%, varying by sex. Three genome-wide significant loci are identified, 2 in European and 1 in African-ancestry analyses. Analyses stratified by sex implicate 3 additional loci in men.

This study describes how elderly Holocaust survivors living in Hungary evaluate their lives in the context of multiple sociopolitical upheavals they had experienced. We interviewed Holocaust survivors who continue to live in the locale of their original victimization and amid renewed threats of anti-Semitism.

Objective: Due to traumatic experiences and highly prevalent post-migration stressors, refugees are vulnerable for developing psychopathology. To date, research has mainly evaluated trauma-focused therapies, targeting post traumatic stresss symptoms. Treatments targeting post-migration stressors are relatively understudied. The present cohort study evaluated the potential effectiveness of 7ROSES, a transdiagnostic intervention that aims to increase self-efficacy among treatment-seeking refugees in dealing with postmigration stressors.

Background: Exposure to potentially traumatizing events, defined as events involving actual or threatened death or serious injury, is associated with an elevated risk of developing enduring physical, psychological and social problems. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that can occur after prolonged and repeated trauma. At least 30% of the sexually abused population is male, but in spite of this fact, treatment research focusing on male victims is virtually non-existent in comparison to research on female victims.

Background: To date, most studies on the mental health of refugees in Europe have focused on the prevalence and treatment of psychopathology. Little is known about those who illegally reside in the host country, referred to, in the Netherlands, as undocumented asylum seekers. There are indications that mental health and psychosocial problems are more prevalent in this group than among refugees in general, with unsatisfactory treatment outcomes.

Ze werkt in het Wilhelmina Kinderziekenhuis met kinderen die zijn getraumatiseerd door seksueel geweld.
Iva Bicanic wil dat artsen de misbruikcirkel doorbreken door te vragen naar negatieve ervaringen. ‘Het delen met anderen is onderdeel van traumaverwerking.’
Interview met psycholoog Iva Bicanic

The present study describes a Single-Case Experimental Design (SCED) research protocol. The outlined research is aimed at investigating the effectiveness and potential mechanisms of the Resolutions Approach (RA), a multidisciplinary intervention to stop child abuse and enhance safety in the families. Given the heterogeneity of the population and innovativeness of the topic, a SCED with a baseline period (A-phase) followed by a treatment period (B-phase) is designed.