Resignation syndrome: The mysterious disease that strikes young refugees in Sweden

For almost two decades, something very strange has been happening in Sweden.

They call it “resignation syndrome” and it affects the children of refugees, who are completely withdrawn from the world, stop walking or talking and some even keep their eyes closed.

But why does it only happen to children of immigrants and why mainly only in Sweden?

The BBC tells such a story with a family from the former Soviet Union who has sought asylum in Sweden since 2015. 9-year-old Sophie remains in a permanent state of sleep and is forced to be transported in a wheelchair.

The little girl’s eyes are permanently closed. They have been wearing diapers and feeding her with a tube from her nose for 20 months.

“Her pressure is quite normal,” Dr Elisabeth Hultcrantz of Doctors of the World told the BBC. The doctor examined the little one and found that all her functions were normal. Only the child does not respond to stimuli.

Sophie is not the only child refugees suffering from the rare syndrome, health professionals in Sweden are constantly diagnosing such conditions. Everyone agrees that it is the psychological trauma that makes them withdraw from the world.

In fact, those who are most vulnerable to the “resignation syndrome” are those who have seen with their own eyes extreme scenes of violence, often against their parents, or those whose families have gone through a long journey of refuge.

This is what happened in Sophie’s case. They managed to escape persecution in Russia and arrived in Sweden to spend hours in the police station. It was there that Sophie began to show the first signs of concern.

In fact, when it came time to consider their asylum application, Sophie stopped talking and eating.

What is “resignation syndrome”?

The “resignation syndrome” was first discovered in Sweden in the late 1990s. More than 400 such cases came to light between 2003-2005. “Children in apathy” they say and they are very worried about the health authorities of the country, as the issue has become, among other things, a product of political controversy.

Some have even gone so far as to say that children pretend to be withdrawal symptoms. Or how their parents poison them to secure approval asylum application.

Only doctors reject such interpretations, talking about an existing situation. In the last decade, the phenomenon has even declined. The Swedish National Health Council stated that 169 such cases were recorded in 2015 and 2016.

The syndrome affects refugee children and unaccompanied refugee children, the most vulnerable populations from countries such as Russia and the Balkans in particular, as the syndrome rarely affects children from African or Asian countries.

The “resignation syndrome” was first reported in children living in Nazi concentration camps. “As far as we know, there are no reported cases outside Sweden,” wrote Dr Karl Sallin, a pediatrician at Stockholm University Hospital.

“The most plausible explanation is that there are specific socio-political factors needed to develop the syndrome,” he says, trying to explain why the mysterious condition occurs exclusively in Sweden.

Which is so rare that we do not have enough data for research. Not even a complete history of the cases.

Despite the fact that we do not know what these become children, the records show that they come back at some point and survive.

But some suffer from the syndrome for months…