For the very first time, researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuorscience were able to show through clinical evidence the effects of human trafficking on a person's mental health. In a patient population in South London, among the indicators observed were high levels of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Medical Xpress writes that in 2013, human trafficking has been evident in between 10,000 and 13,000 people in the UK who were either forced or deceived for the purpose of exploitation. Most people experienced sexual coercion, domestic slavery, and forced labor in various industries where recruitment and employment is highly practiced.
In this new study, researchers analyzed a population of 133 trafficked people, 37 of which are minors. The participants were in contact with secondary mental health services at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM). The clinical and sociodemographic data gathered through the text-mining tool - which they called the Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) application - were then compared to that of a randomly selected sample population of non-trafficked patients.
With their analysis, the research team found that 51 percent of those trafficked were through sexual abuse. About 39 percent in adults and 27 percent in children were found to suffer PTSD. Signs of extreme depression were also observed in these subgroups, about 34 percent and 27 percent respectively, and a remarkable 15 percent were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Moreover, medical records documented high rates of past childhood abuse among trafficked adults, about 43 percent, as compared to children with 76 percent.
"Research on the mental health needs of trafficked people is extremely limited and only based on evidence from those in contact with shelter services," says Dr. Sian Oram, a lecturer in Women's Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, in the press release. "Our study shows that mental health services are caring for trafficked people with a range of diagnoses, including PTSD, depression and schizophrenia."
With all these findings, mental health professionals must be conscious enough to notice if a person is or was trafficked, and hopefully offer proper therapeutic interventions that are deemed necessary, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
The study appears in the journal The Lancnet Psychiatry.
