Resignation syndrome in hidden tears and silences

• Published in: International journal of social psychiatry Vol. 65; no. 1; pp. 80 - 82
• Main Authors: Santiago, Iago Sávyo Duarte, Freitas Neta, Maria Stella Batista de, de Barros, Júlio Cesar Dias, Landim, José Marcondes Macedo, Arrais, Tereza Maria Siqueira Nascimento, de Sousa, Danilo Ferreira, Cruz, Tamires Oliveira, Cintra Júnior, Dorinaldo de Freitas, Dias, Joselito Batista, Lima, Nádia Nara Rolim, Rolim Neto, Modesto Leite
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-02-2019; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Brain; Children; Coma; Deportation; Epidemiology; Families & family life; Immigrants; International community; Medical personnel; Political asylum; Psychologists; Refugees; Will to live; Sweden
• DOI: 10.1177/0020764018792595
• EISSN: 1741-2854
• ISSN: 0020-7640

The arrival of more than 160,000 immigrants who asked asylum in Sweden in the end of 2015 corresponds to the biggest ratio per capita recorded in OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – countries (1.6% of the total population of 10 million), according to a report of OECD in January of 2017. At this same year, Sweden spent €6,000 millions with refugees (1.35% of gross domestic product; Expresso, 2017). A syndrome is calling attention of international community. It is spreading among refugees’ children and it is called ‘Resignation Syndrome’ – or uppgivenhetssyndrom (Casadaptada, 2017). Children affected by the condition start showing symptoms by withdrawing from social activities and speaking less, before finally closing off completely from the world around them. Experts suggest the conscious part of their brain simply shuts down, forcing their parents to feed them through tubes and put them in nappies – although no children are believed to have ever died as a result of the condition (The Sun, 2018). Elizabeth Hultcrantz, a doctor who has treated those with the illness, told The New Yorker (2017): ‘I think it is a form of protection, this coma they are in. They are like Snow White. They just fall away from the world’. However, why do those cases only happen in Sweden? The health care professionals taking care of those children argue that the trauma is the cause of the children’s physical distancing. The most vulnerable children are precisely those who faced extreme violence episodes or children whose family fled from dangerous environments (BBC Brasil, 2017). What Swedes verified was that, in a moment, the children were healthy and, after they received the notice of deportation, they entered in a condition similar to coma – they cannot move or eat – but the tests reveal that there is no cerebral lesions (Jornal Econômico, 2017). Doctors studying the rare condition note that it tends to only affect refugees from Eastern Europe, fleeing ‘holistic’ societies where the family unit, and wider society, is always championed over the needs of the individual. A report by the Swedish government suggested that the stricken children may be acting in line with their society’s unspoken rules, subconsciously giving up the will to live without any direct encouragement in the hope that it will save their family. Because of this, with no obvious medical cure, many psychologists believe that only the security of permanent residency can bring the children back (The Sun, 2018). The controversy starts in epidemiology. All cases of this syndrome are described in Sweden.