A clinical case of depression in a teenage girl, child of migrants. The position of cultural etiological hypotheses
Prise en charge d'une dépression chez une adolescente migrante de seconde génération. La place des étiologies culturelles
Résumé
Introduction: In our adolescent medical department in a Paris Hospital, psychiatrists and paediatrics always work together with a multidisciplinary approach. In our clinical practice, we often observe a resistance from migrant families to psychological care. The aim of this article was to understand the reasons for this resistance and to analyse, from a clinical situation, the specificities of these transcultural consultations. Background: Specific vulnerabilities of children of migrants are well-known, especially during the adolescent period. Studies about second generation migration children show more psychiatric disorders, in particular for depression. Despite that, children of migrants and their families do not often seek psychiatric consultations perhaps because mental illness is stigmatized in their own culture. Clinical case: We report the clinical case of a teenage girl, 17, born in France, child of migrants from the Ivory Coast. This teenager was hospitalized in our department because of depression and fainting with loss of consciousness. The cultural etiological hypotheses of her parents were presented (such as witchcraft or evil spirits). Discussion: The discussion highlights the psychological object as an acculturative subject for the teenager, and cultural and religious reactions from her mother, in response to psychological care. We will see how much these cultural reactions are difficult to treat in a transcultural therapy because they could not be hybridized. The father's involvement during the transcultural therapy was very important to better understand the situation, regarding his migratory history. The teenager uses this therapy to learn about her origins and try to belong again to her family. The transcultural consultation seems to be very important to increase the means of filiation and affiliation. Perspective: The links between break of cultural/family transmission and depression during the adolescence of children of migrants deserve to be explored through future research.
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