Health Policy
Volume 123, Issue 9, 2019, Pages 864-872

Asylum seekers’ mental health and treatment utilization in a three months follow-up study after transfer from a state registration-and reception-center in Germany (Article)

Nikendei C.* , Kindermann D. , Brandenburg-Ceynowa H. , Derreza-Greeven C. , Zeyher V. , Junne F. , Friederich H.-C. , Bozorgmehr K.
  • a Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  • b Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  • c Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  • d Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  • e Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  • f Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
  • g Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  • h Department of General Practice and Health Services Research, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, Department of Population Medicine and Health Services Research, School of Public Health Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

Abstract

Even though asylum seekers show a high prevalence of trauma-related disorders and comorbid psychological stress symptoms, little is known about how their mental health develops during the asylum process and what options of care are provided. We aimed to investigate the mental health and treatment utilization of asylum seekers after they were transferred from a state registration- and reception-center to municipal shelters in Germany. N = 228 asylum seekers with on-going asylum procedure were recruited in the psychosocial walk-in clinic located in a state registration- and reception-center. We firstly captured symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety disorders, quality of life, as well as alcohol or drug abuse. Subsequently we performed a follow-up after three months to evaluate a potential shift in symptoms and determining rates of access to treatment. In the pre-post psychometric assessment, there were statistically significant changes in depression (PHQ-2), panic (PHQ-PD) and psychosocial well-being scores (WHO-5). However, all these scores still remained within a clinical relevant range, respectively. Traumatic stress (PC-PTSD-5) and general anxiety scores (GAD-2) did not change significantly. Although N = 44 (66%) of the interviewed patients had been referred to psychotherapy initially, none (0%) of them had received outpatient psychotherapeutic treatment after three months. Our results emphasize a strong need for low-threshold, cultural adapted psychotherapeutic treatment for asylum seekers. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.

Author Keywords

Post-traumatic stress Asylum seekers Depression Reception-center Anxiety Psychotherapy Psychiatric care Quality of life trauma

Index Keywords

prospective study depression Germany longitudinal study anxiety disorder follow up mental health human middle aged controlled study psychological wellbeing assessment alcoholism drug dependence psychosocial care panic General anxiety disorder questionnaire 2 psychotherapy asylum seeker Patient Health Questionnaire 2 Young Adult male female questionnaire psychometry Article health care utilization help seeking behavior major clinical study adult posttraumatic stress disorder age distribution ethnicity health care facility
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85069732561&doi=10.1016%2fj.healthpol.2019.07.008&partnerID=40&md5=b9df4512b6d15ab78a2b2a120168cdc1
DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2019.07.008
ISSN: 01688510
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English