Migration and mental health: an observational study on psychopathological distress in migrants

BACKGROUND: In the last decade migration worldwide has shown an increasing trend: people who lives in a country different to the birth one amount to almost 260 million, representing 3.4% of the global population. In this panorama, psychiatric services are increasingly called to deal with migrants’ psychopathological distress. It is shared that the clinical presentation, the risk factors and the prognosis of psychiatric conditions vary according to ethnic and culture influence. Moreover, migration often represents a trauma, determining an increased risk of psychiatric disorders. This observational study is aimed to describe sociodemographic and clinical variables of migrants suffering from emotional disorders, to compare variables in different ethnicities, and to compare them in different period of migration. METHODS: Sociodemographic and clinical variables of 801 migrants were collected between 2005 and 2018 and pro cessed through the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 software (IBM; Armonk, NY, USA). RESULTS: No statistically significant differences for diagnoses of adaptation disorder, anxiety and mood disorders were found, while significant differences were found both in the incidence of psychosis and post-traumatic stress disorder and in the type of access to care. CONCLUSIONS: The analyzed data may be useful elements to consider in order to adapt the Mental Health Services, to guarantee access even to the more fragile people