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Peace in Colombia requires healing the scars of conflict on the mind and brain

Nature Medicine volume 31, pages 2845–2849 (2025)Cite this article

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Resurging violence in Colombia is silently embedding a syndemic mental and brain health crisis driven by trauma, mass displacement, and ecological collapse.

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Fig. 1: Conflict-related exposures and multilevel mechanisms linking violence to brain and mental health in Colombia.
Fig. 2: Scenes of displacements.

Johnny Miller

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Acknowledgements

A.I. is supported by grants from the multi-partner consortium to expand dementia research in Latin America (ReDLat, supported by Fogarty International Center (FIC), National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Aging (R01s AG075775, AG057234, AG082056 and AG083799, CARDS-NIH 75N95022C00031), Alzheimer’s Association (SG-20-725707), Rainwater Charitable Foundation – The Bluefield project to cure FTD, and Global Brain Health Institute)), ANID/FONDECYT Regular (1250091, 1210195, 1210176 and 1220995); ANID/PIA/ANILLOS ACT210096; FONDEF ID20I10152, and ANID/FONDAP 15150012. C.T.-L.L. is a PhD fellow funded by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD; scholarship 91828451). The contents of this publication are solely the authors’ responsibility and do not represent the official views of these institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Developmental Sciences, Cognition and Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia

    Juan F. Cardona & Catalina Trujillo-Llano

  2. Department of Neurology, Universitätsmedizin Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Catalina Trujillo-Llano

  3. Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Dublin, Ireland

    Johnny Miller & Agustín Ibañez

  4. Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Agustín Ibañez

  5. Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Agustín Ibañez

  6. Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Dublin, Ireland

    Agustín Ibañez

Authors
  1. Juan F. Cardona
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  2. Catalina Trujillo-Llano
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  4. Agustín Ibañez
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Correspondence to Agustín Ibañez.

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Cardona, J.F., Trujillo-Llano, C., Miller, J. et al. Peace in Colombia requires healing the scars of conflict on the mind and brain. Nat Med 31, 2845–2849 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03857-7

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