Symptom vs context: lessons learned from a large-scale implementation of the Cultural Formulation Interview.

Mental health services in multicultural societies require culturally sensitive approaches to reduce health disparities. The Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) is thought to enhance shared decision making and to facilitate culturally and contextually informed treatment. There is, however, little known regarding its implementability in large-scale psychiatric services.

The effect of the cultural formulation interview on therapeutic working alliance: a study protocol.

Background: The Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) is designed to improve understanding of patients' mental health care needs. The lack of empirical evidence on the impact and effectiveness of CFI use in clarifying people's perspectives, experiences, context, and identity, and in preventing cultural misunderstandings between migrant patients and clinicians, inspired this study. The objective is to examine the effect of the CFI on the strength of therapeutic working alliances, and the potential mediating or moderating role of perceived empathy.

Prevalence of mental disorders in refugees and asylum seekers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Studies have identified high rates of mental disorders in refugees, but most used self-report measures of psychiatric symptoms. In this study, we examined the percentages of adult refugees and asylum seekers meeting diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD), post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder (BPD), and psychosis.

Methods: A systematic literature search in three databases was conducted.

The role of migration processes and cultural factors in the classification of personality disorders.

Migrants and ethnic minorities are at risk of being under- and overdiagnosed with personality disorders (PDs). A culturally informed approach to the classification of PDs guides clinicians in incorporating migration processes and cultural factors, to arrive at a reliable and valid assessment of personality pathology. In this article, we provide a tentative framework to highlight specific interactions between personality disorders, migration processes, and cultural factors.

The Attribution of Mental Health Problems to Jinn: An Explorative Study in a Transcultural Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic.

Background: Among Muslim patients, a common cultural concept of distress is the notion that jinn may be the cause of mental health problems, especially in the presence of hallucinations.

Objective: This study examines the frequency with which this attribution style is manifest in a specific psychiatric outpatient population with a Muslim background.

Methods: Of all patients registered at an outpatient clinic specialized in transcultural psychiatry, data were collected on folk belief, religion, hallucinations (if present), and medical diagnosis.

Direct and indirect assessment of explanatory models of illness.

Patients' self-reports of explanatory models (EMs) are sensitive to distortions, particularly as a result of social desirability, uncertainty towards one's own beliefs, and ethnic disparities with the interviewer. In contrast, reaction-time-based indirect measures are thought to be less sensitive to such factors. This article reports on two studies that applied direct (interview) and indirect (reaction-time-based association task) measures of EMs.

Assessment of explanatory models of mental illness: effects of patient and interviewer characteristics.

Background: Explanatory models (EMs) refer to patients' causal attributions of illness and have been shown to affect treatment preference and outcome. Reliable and valid assessment of EMs may be hindered by interviewer and respondent disparities on certain demographic characteristics, such as ethnicity. The present study examined (a) whether ethnic minority patients reported different EMs to ethnically similar interviewers in comparison with those with a different ethnicity, and (b) whether this effect was related to respondents' social desirability, the perceived rapport with the interviewer and level of uncertainty toward their EMs.