Utilisation of Psychotherapeutic Assistance by Diabetes Patients with a History of Migration

摘要

According to available studies, migrant patients are more often affected by diabetes mellitus and comorbid psychological complaints than patients without a history of migration. Less is known about whether these patients receive psychotherapeutic assistance for their complaints and which factors may influence the utilisation of psychotherapy in this patient group. We sought to answer these questions by using culture sensitive material which included a screening for depressive symptoms (the Patient Health Questionnaire) and sociodemographic items. The material was completed once by patients of 2 collaborating family practices in the Dusseldorf Metropolitan Area during the total research period of 12 months. Both practices were participating in the Disease Management Programme (DMP) for diabetes mellitus (type 2). 42% of the 90 included patients had a clinically relevant depressive symptomatology. One third of these patients were in psychotherapy. One of the major barriers for the utilisation of psychotherapeutic help independent of the severity of depressive complaints was the existence of language barriers on the part of the patient. Patients with language barriers were about 10 times less likely to be in psychotherapy. Neither the duration that patients were living in Germany, nor the cultural match with the family practitioner, age or gender of patients played a significant role. The existence of death or suicidal fantasies, on the contrary, significantly increased the likelihood of being in psychotherapy. Implications of these data are discussed together with suggestions for future research.