Anxiety Disorders through a Transcultural Perspective: Implications for Migrants

Background/Methods: This paper analyses the psychopathology and differential diagnosis of anxiety disorders and their worldwide prevalence. It focuses particularly on migrant-specific aetiopathogenetic factors and approaches prevalence and important cultural aspects of anxiety disorders in migrants as a narrative empirical review. Results: Transcultural research demonstrates the universal existence of anxiety disorders. However, the cross-cultural comparison of the epidemiological data is complicated and often leads to systematic bias. The described psychopathology varies significantly across cultures, indicating different ways of expressing and experiencing the basic emotion of anxiety. As a result, anxiety disorders manifest themselves differently across cultures, which may affect the diagnostic and therapeutic procedure. Migration is an additional extraordinary stressor playing a substantial role in the development of anxiety disorders. However, despite the high prevalence of anxiety disorders among migrants, a high threshold due to several barriers leads to an underrepresentation of migrants in the utilization of the mental health system. Conclusions: In the transcultural differential diagnosis of anxiety disorders, as among migrants, understanding and openness to other cultures and their standards is essential. Thereby, a migrant-specific treatment approach with a long-term binding of patients in a multimodal and culture-sensitive and -permissive treatment option is of vital importance.