Mr Bates and the post office: The implications of the UK post office scandal for the taxonomy of trauma.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the psychopathology of the victims of the UK Post Office scandal and the extent to which this can be adequately described by current classification of traumatic stress symptoms.

DESIGN

Standard clinical interviews for the purposes of preparing medico-legal reports.

SETTING

Face to face and virtual interviews.

PARTICIPANTS

Victims of the Post Office Scandal, postmaster's and postmistress's wrongly accused of theft.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

ICD-10 diagnostic criteria.

RESULTS

All the subjects had experienced life changing traumatic reactions which were inadequately captured by current diagnostic criteria.

CONCLUSIONS

The current taxonomy of trauma fails to capture the diversity of symptoms experienced by the postmasters and we argue that a formulation based approach should be employed, especially in the court room. There remains inadequate research exploring the impact of wrongful conviction on the mental state of victims.