About this Research Topic

Background

Culture and context influence the expression and interpretation of symptoms of distress and thus complicate transcultural psychiatric diagnostics. Standard instruments may not adequately reflect the experience of psychiatric disorders across cultures. Diagnostic difficulties increase the risk that mental disorders particularly among ethnic minorities, migrants, and refugees go undetected, are not diagnosed within a reasonable time frame, or are misdiagnosed. Incorrect diagnoses and poor quality of psychiatric assessment can lead to poor treatment adherence, sub-optimal treatment, and even lack of treatment. The DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview has been developed as a person-centered instrument to guide an individual cultural assessment during the clinical diagnostic process. The use of the CFI in majority populations, and in other healthcare contexts are additional topics needing to be examined. Research is needed for evaluating the outcome of clinical implementation of the CFI, suggestions for refinement and improvement of the CFI, and culturally sensitive psychiatric assessment.

The CFI in DSM-5 is the first standardized protocol aimed to support clinically sensitive psychiatric assessment. There is a need for clinical implementation research from diverse cultural, social, and geographical contexts to evaluate the usefulness of the CFI in its present form and to define needs for future refinement and improvement. There is also a need of research on training of clinicians and students in using the CFI in order to develop best practice. Use of the CFI in non-psychiatric healthcare contexts is underway, with both minority and majority populations. In these healthcare contexts the CFI may not only add different dimensions to the diagnostic process but also serve to better-inform treatment protocols.

This Research Topic invites manuscripts on the following topics:

• Clinical implementation of the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI)
• Suggestions for refinement of the CFI
• Training in using the CFI
• Using the CFI as a training instrument in the education of residents and students
• Combing cultural and structural competency in psychiatric assessment
• Clinical challenges improving culturally-sensitive care
• Use of the CFI as a person-centered intervention in non-psychiatric as well as psychiatric healthcare populations
• Use of CFI-inspired questions in healthcare surveys related to Covid-19 or post-Covid contexts

Keywords: DSM-5, clinical implementations, CFI, cultural formulation interview

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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