The guards outside the cell of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe would purposefully call their children outside her cell as part of 'studied cruelty', her husband says.
The mum-of-one is a victim of torture, suffers major depression and PTSD and requires urgent psychiatric treatment, according to a charity which commissioned a detailed medical assessment of her.
Human rights group Redress said it based its categorisation of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe as a torture victim on UN standards, and said the assessment's findings were "highly consistent" with Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's allegations of torture and ill-treatment.
Richard Ratcliffe said it would take "a long time" for his wife's mental anxiety to go away and the situation was "still very uncertain," ahead of her return to court in Iran on Sunday.
Speaking about her treatment on Times Radio, he said: "In fairness to the Iranian regime they are quite sophisticated about not leaving physical scars but they do an awful lot of cruel tricks.
"Things are still very uncertain... that fear of bad stuff happening again, of being put back in solitary (confinement) will stay with her until she's safe.
"It takes a long time for that anxiety to go away."
Mr Ratcliffe, said his six-year-old daughter Gabriella was "definitely weaponised" against his wife but that was a "standard tactic".
He said that guards would call their own children outside his wife's cell, when she could not, which he described as a "real studied cruelty".
As Mrs Zaghari-Ratliffe prepares to return to court in Iran on Sunday, Redress has called on the Government to recognise her as a victim of torture, having sent the Foreign Secretary the 77-page report on the mother-of-one it commissioned from the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT).
Coming a day after Boris Johnson demanded her release in a call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the report says Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and obsessive stress disorder because of "extremely stressful, traumatising experiences in the prisons of Iran" and the uncertainty surrounding her immediate future.
It also says at the beginning of her sentence in 2016, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was interrogated for hours on end, often blindfolded, while in solitary confinement.
Redress says the report also shows the former Thomson Reuters Foundation aid administrator has suffered hair loss, developed obsessive compulsive disorder about washing, and was repeatedly forced to endure hearing a female prison guard's conversations with her daughter, exacerbating her distress at being separated from her own child.
"In addition, she experiences ongoing physical pain and impairment in her neck, right shoulder, and arm, which arose as a result of her treatment and the denial of medical care," Redress said in a statement.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, last week completed a five-year sentence in Tehran on spying charges levied by Iranian authorities, the last year of which was spent under house arrest due to the pandemic.
The charity released a summary letter from from the IRCT detailing findings from the "independent physical and psychological evaluation of Nazanin ... conducted by two doctors who are recognised forensic specialists over three days in October 2020".
That letter states Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe "is in urgent need of psychiatric pharmacological and psychotherapeutic support, as well as evaluation and treatment of her physical symptoms".
"Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's pain and suffering have not abated due to her release from imprisonment to house arrest," the letter says.
"While she is not feeling as acute stress as she did when she was in prison, she continues to relive and suffer from the serious and long-lasting traumatising issues she experienced during the past (nearly) 5 years.
"In the long-term, without reunification with her family in the UK and effective treatment, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's conditions will become chronic and potentially deteriorate.
"Her psychological symptoms and disorders will be unable to resolve themselves and will become chronic and potentially worsen."
Redress director Rupert Skilbeck said: "Redress has long held that Nazanin's treatment by Iran amounts to torture.
"Based on this new evidence, the UK government should publicly acknowledge that Nazanin is a victim of torture in Iran, and do everything in its power to protect her from further harm."
In their letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accompanying the report, Redress said: "Iran's treatment of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is based on discrimination against her for being a British citizen.
"Iranian authorities have intentionally inflicted severe suffering on Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe for the purpose of intimidating or coercing the UK Government into negotiating a deal for her release, coercing her into giving a confession, and forcing her to provide information about others.
"The UK Government should publicly acknowledge Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe as a victim of torture in Iran, and do everything in its power to protect her from further harm."
A Downing Street spokesman said in his call with Mr Rouhani on Wednesday, the Prime Minister had said "that while the removal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's ankle monitor was welcome, her continued confinement remains completely unacceptable and she must be allowed to return to her family in the UK."
