Culturally-Adapted Psychiatric Interventions among Iranian and Persian Speaking Refugees and Immigrants: A Systematic Review

Amir-Abbas  Keshavarz-Akhlaghi; Esmat  Abdollahpour; Shiva  Soraya; Shabnam  Asadi; Negar  Seify-Moghadam; Zeynab  Noorimotlagh; Ayyoub  Malek; Ruohollah  Seddigh

doi:10.18502/jimc.v9i1.20475

Amir-Abbas Keshavarz-Akhlaghi Research Center for Addiction and Risky Behaviors (ReCARB), Psychosocial Health Research Institute (PHRI), Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Esmat Abdollahpour Department of Nephrology, Shariati Hospital, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Shiva Soraya Research Center for Addiction and Risky Behaviors, Psychosocial Health Research Institute, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Shabnam Asadi Research Center for Addiction and Risky Behaviors (ReCARB), Psychosocial Health Research Institute (PHRI), Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Negar Seify-Moghadam Research Center for Addiction and Risky Behaviors (ReCARB), Psychosocial Health Research Institute (PHRI), Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Zeynab Noorimotlagh School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Ayyoub Malek Working group of Psychiatry and Psychology Culture-Based Knowledge Development, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Ruohollah Seddigh Research Center for Addiction and Risky Behaviors, Psychosocial Health Research Institute, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/jimc.v9i1.20475

Keywords: Cognitive behavioral therapy, Depression, Grief, Iran, Post-traumatic stress disorders, Psychodrama, Psychotherapy, Refugees, Search engine

Abstract

Background: The mental health of immigrants and refugees is an important issue, which may point at cultural differences, baseline mental health problems, and underlying mental states. Culturally adapted psychiatric interventions are designed to meet these problems in countries with different cultures.

Methods: This study is a systematic review. After searching relevant English and Persian papers with keywords of refugee, immigrant, psychotherapy, and Iran in Scopus, Medline, and Google Scholar databases besides IranDoc, ElmNet, Magiran, Iranmedex, SID, and Civilica, as databases indexing Iranian journals and Persian scientific articles until December 2022, the included papers screened by two independent reviewers and their data were extracted in previously-designed forms.

Results: After removing duplicate papers, 1742 papers were screened but only 14 papers met eligibility criteria and their full-texts were available or the corresponding author was available for asking for the full text. Majority of the studies focused on depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and various aspects of culturally-adapted psychiatric interventions, including interventions with similar comparing with different interviewer race, same-race group-therapy approaches, and various cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Conclusion: There are few culturally-adapted interventions reported in the literature, which shows the importance of applying culture-related modifications on therapy methods. However, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and grief are three main mental health issues of Persian-speaking immigrants and refugees and face-to-face and internet-based CBT, psychodrama and trauma-focused group therapy were the main interventions among the reported culture-considered ones.