Abstract
Psychopathological reactions to solitary confinement were extensively described by 19th-century German clinicians. In the USA there have been several legal challenges to the use of solitary confinement, based on allegations that it may have serious psychiatric consequences. The recent medical literature on this subject has been scarce. Psychiatric symptoms that appeared in 14 inmates exposed to periods of increased social isolation and sensory restriction in solitary confinement are described. Evidently, these symptoms form a major, clinically distinguishable psychiatric syndrome.

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