[Asylum Law and Mental Health: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Coaction of Medical and Legal Aspects].
OBJECTIVE
Interdisciplinary analysis of the consequences of laws and legal practice for mental health conditions of asylum seekers and psychiatric care.


METHODS
Based on the case study of a Kurdish woman with complex trauma-related psychiatric disorder, who had been in psychiatric hospital care for 25 months, the legal and medical facts are exposed, followed by a discussion referring to theoretical approaches from medical anthropology.


RESULTS
Immigration laws and legal practice can have harmful consequences, which can be interpreted as "structural violence".


CONCLUSIONS
In case of traumatized refugees, the coaction of legal and medical aspects has to be acknowledged seriously by the medical, legal and political parts involved.
Zentrum für Psychiatrie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.
Bernd
B
Hanewald
Professur für Öffentliches Recht, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bast, Refugee Law Clinic, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.
Janina
J
Gieseking
Zentrum für Psychiatrie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.
Oliver
O
Vogelbusch
Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, AG Kultur, Migration & Global Health, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.
Inessa
I
Markus
Zentrum für Psychiatrie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.
Bernd
B
Gallhofer
Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, AG Kultur, Migration & Global Health, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.
Michael
M
Knipper
D000328:Adult; D015897:Comorbidity; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D000070516:Intersectoral Collaboration; D007514:Islam / Q000523:psychology*; D007902:Length of Stay; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology*; D012036:Refugees / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology