Migratory processes and psychiatric disorders in a sample of adolescents: A retrospective observational study

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the clinical and socio-demographic features in a sample of 10–17 years-old immigrant inpatients with a psychiatric disorder. Method: One hundred and thirty-eight immigrant adolescents, 138 Italian controls age, gender, and diagnosis-matched were enrolled. Socio-demographic and clinical features were carried out from medical records. Immigrants were divided into three groups according to the migratory processes: first-generation participants immigrated alone (IAs) to reunite with their parents (58%); first-generation participants immigrated with their parents (IPs) (13.8%); second-generation participants (SGIs), born in Italy from immigrant parents (25.3%). Results: The onset of psychiatric symptoms in IAs occurred mainly after the first-year of stay in Italy (80.2%, p = 0.036, OR 5.25), while IPs were more likely to begin showing their symptoms 5 years after immigration. Moreover, IAs were more likely to be admitted to the emergency room for the first occurrence of an acute psychiatric disorder rather than for a chronic, previously-treated disease, when compared with SGIs and Italians. Conclusion: Among the immigrants, first-generation adolescents were the most likely to present a psychiatric acute disorder. When compared with Italians, immigrants were more likely to use the emergency room to access mental health services and tended to be hospitalized for an acute, previously unknown, disease.

Keywords:

• immigration
• mental disorders
• inpatients
• mental health services

Public Interest Statement

In the last years, immigration has increased in Italy. The present paper is focused on a group of immigrant inpatients with a psychiatric disease aged between 10 and 17 years . We divided the participants enrolled according to the type of immigration. In a second time we compared the immigrant group to Italian controls, matched by age, gender, and type of diagnosis. The specific type of immigration was observed to be correlated to the latency time between the arrival to Italy and the first symptoms onset. In our study, participants immigrated alone tended to start their psychiatric disease after the first-year of stay in Italy, meanwhile participants immigrated with their family presented the symptoms onset mainly 5 years after their arrival to Italy. Moreover, all the immigrants tended to be hospitalized for an acute disease previously unknown to the services and to use emergency room more frequently, when compared with the Italian controls.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interest.

Acknowledgments

Authors thank patients and their parents who participated in our study.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Monica Bomba

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Department of University of Milan-Bicocca—ASST of Monza is located in Monza, Italy. Since 80s, it is dedicated to the treatment of children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders. Our services include a hospital ward, a day hospital for eating disorders, short- and long-term residential and semi-residential therapeutic community, and specialized clinics. In addition, the research group has published several papers in the field of early onset psychosis, eating disorders and personality disorders, and entertaining collaborations with other Italian and International research groups.