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



Keshavarzakhlaghi AA ; Abdollahpour E ; Soraya S ; Asadi S ; Seifymoghadam N ; Noorimotlagh Z ; Malek A ; Seddigh R
Source: Journal of Iranian Medical Council Published:2026

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. © 2026, Journal of Iranian Medical Council.