Ethical and psychiatric aspects of torture: a Canadian study.

In the last two decades widespread use of torture by totalitarian governments has been reported in over 60 countries. This situation concerns physicians who are sometimes called upon to see the victims. This paper reports the psychiatric findings in a group of 41 Latin American refugees who arrived in Canada from 1977 to 1979 and alleged to have been subjected to political persecution and torture under the military rulers of their own countries.