Refugee Mental Health

The focus of this Research Topic is on research that aims to understand the relationships between pre-migration stressors and potentially traumatic experiences, post-migration living difficulties, and mental health in refugees of both sexes throughout the lifespan. We know very little about how concepts of assessing and treating mental health conditions actually work when applied to traumatized refugee populations from different cultures (e.g., the Yezidi people from northern Iraq). Moreover, there is also a great need to better understand the relationship between mental health and refugees’ integration in their host countries’ societies (acquiring language skills, fitness for work, economic independence, private life, etc.). This Research Topic will also focus on the issue of culture—the extent to which concepts of mental health care can translate and be implemented in different social, economic, and cultural settings around the world.

We would like to see studies using observational, experimental or interventional designs, investigating pathophysiological mechanisms as well as the role of stress on (physical and mental) health in different types of environment throughout the lifespan. Studies exploring therapeutic interventions are highly appreciated. Prevention-oriented research as well as theoretical contributions are also of interest. We are open to research coming from different research disciplines and traditions, including psychiatry, psychology, clinical neurosciences, occupational health, public health, education, social and nursing research, among others. We welcome original research, reviews, case reports, clinical trials, clinical study protocols. The purpose of this Research Topic is to provide the field with a cutting edge update of current approaches in translational psychiatry and psychology, psychosomatic medicine and social psychiatry that is hoped to improve and create preventive measures and therapeutic options for refugee mental health.