The number of people in the world that are refugees is ever increasing, and because of this the mental problems associated with refugee status is an ever increasingly important problem. This meta...Show moreThe number of people in the world that are refugees is ever increasing, and because of this the mental problems associated with refugee status is an ever increasingly important problem. This meta-analysis aimed to investigate whether similarity in culture between a refugee’s country of origin and country of residence could predict the treatment related progression of their symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety. Distance between countries was taken as a moderating variable to separate similarity of culture from other, correlated considerations, such as the duration of the journey. Through (multivariate) regression analysis it was found that when this distance was controlled for, similarity of culture was associated with improved treatment of PTSD and anxiety. This means that although on average symptoms were significantly reduced by treatment (Cohen’s d = -0.77 for PTSD, -0.68 for depression, -0.54 for anxiety), this was in large part moderated by the similarity of culture, with PTSD treatment efficacy being up to about one standard deviation greater for the most culturally similar countries than for the least. For anxiety this difference was about half a standard deviation, and although no significant results were found for depression, the data did point in the same direction. Furthermore, a subgroup analysis showed that this effect could fully be mitigated by adapting the treatment to the language and culture of the refugee. These result show that it is likely that dissimilarity of culture has a detrimental effect on treatment efficacy. They show as well the importance of adapting treatment to the language and culture of the refugee, especially when their culture is very dissimilar to that of the country of their arrival.Show less
