Immigration policy played a decisive role in the outcomes of three regional elections in Germany this past Sunday. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party in particular, the Christian Democratic Union, suffered losses attributed to its leader’s welcoming stance toward refugees fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and other war-torn regions. Germany took in more than a million migrants and refugees in 2015—more than any other country in Europe. But taking each nation’s population into consideration, Germany actually lags behind several other countries in the European Union, notably Hungary and Sweden, which have received proportionally larger numbers of asylum applications.
Although it is well established that compared with voluntary migrants, refugees face an increased risk of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, very little is known about their risk for psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. And although the causes of schizophrenia remain unknown, a large body of research has found that traumatic events can further increase the risk of or even trigger schizophrenia in individuals who may already be vulnerable.
[For more of this story, written by Jordana Cepelewicz, go to http://www.scientificamerican....psychotic-disorders/]
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