EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION ON THE MENTALLY-ILL - DOES IT PRODUCE PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS

This report explores psychological distress among immigrants seeking h elp from psychiatric outpatient clinics as compared with control nonpa tient immigrants. Our hypothesis is that nonpsychotic mentally ill imm igrants will react to acculturation by psychological distress similarl y to healthy individuals. Three questionnaires were used in this surve y: Demographic Psychosocial Inventory, Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview Demoralization Scale ( PERI-D). They were completed by patient and control groups consisting of recent adult immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union. The patient group included 158 subjects seeking psychiatric help from out patient clinics. Among them, 51 met ICD-10 criteria for neurotic, stre ss-related, and somatoform disorders; 41 for schizophrenia; 32 for moo d disorders; 18 for organic illnesses; and 16 for personality disorder s. The control group consisted of 222 immigrants with no previous psyc hiatric history, matched by gender and age to the patient group. Altho ugh all distress symptoms were signficantly more severe in the patient group than in the control group, the BSI profile, showing a high leve l of depression, anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, and obsessive-com pulsive dimensions, was similar in both groups. The psychological dist ress level as measured by the PERI-D was 1.4 times higher in patients than in the control group. Within the patient group, the lowest distre ss level was found in patients suffering from organic disorders. No si gnificant differences in the level of psychological distress were foun d among other diagnostic subgroups. The results suggest that mentally ill immigrants react to acculturation by a psychological distress synd rome similarly to nonpatient immigrants but more severely than nonpati ent immigrants. Copyright (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company