Large-scale migrations caused by armed conflicts, climate change, and economic crises are a constant feature of our daily news. Real human tragedies exist behind what we hear or read about migrants. Those who engage in the long and perilous roads of migration suffer breakage of social ties, violence, abuse, hunger and thirst, insomnia, fatigue, depression, and various forms of stress disorders during their long journey to their temporary or final destinations (Fig. 1). Those who are fortunate enough to survive all these dangers and arrive at their destination must adapt to the new environment, legal landscape, and culture in which they are now immersed, all this within the context of a high risk of ongoing poverty due to the financial and social uncertainties of their new life. Despite all the evidence for this never-ending succession of negative life events and their disastrous consequences on mental health, especially in children, it is still difficult to discern how these factors accumulate and combine in time to negatively impact resilience. This is probably one of the main reasons why it is still so difficult to see successful interventions to alleviate stress and improve resilience in these populations.
Fig. 1.
African migrant
He bleeds but does not stop, He suffers but does not back down, Groggy, his blood runs out, The sun reddens, Shining even brighter.
Painting reproduced from https://instagram.com/abi_emotions_colors?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= (©All rights reserved, Abigahel Dantzer 2022).
It is in the context of this knowledge gap that Agnieszka Freda, Executive Publisher in charge of the portfolio of the psychiatry journals at Elsevier, has launched an initiative to improve mental health support for the refugee community, with a special emphasis on children. The objectives are (1) to create a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Resource Centre titled Mental Health, War Trauma and Migration with selected already published articles in Elsevier journals, that are made free to view for an extended period of time (see https://sdgresources.relx.com/special-issues/mental-health-war-trauma-and-migration), and (2) run a multi-journal special issue with a call for papers seeking new and relevant content for all psychiatry and psychology related journals.
Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology aims to play its part in this second objective. Dr, Catherine Panter-Brick who is the Bruce A. and Davi-Ellen Chabner Professor of Anthropology, Health, and Global Affairs (https://jackson.yale.edu/person/catherine-panter-brick/) at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and the Department of Anthropology at Yale University will act as the Guest Editor for this special issue. Our ambition is not to publish classical psychoneuroendocrine papers investigating for instance salivary alpha-amylase or hair cortisol in refugees and migrant populations with different degrees of psychopathology but to discuss how to develop in-depth, biocultural understandings of psychosocial well-being in these populations to ultimately alleviate their stress, boost their resilience, and improve their lives.