The Core Cultural Formulation Interview in Yielding Religious Content Among Patients Suffering from a Current Major Depressive Episode.

Abstract

Taken up in the DSM-5, the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) is a guide for assessing cultural context of an individual's mental health problem. Unreported before, the extent to which the cultural focus of the CFI yields religious content was explored qualitatively among patients with a current major depressive episode. Qualitative data were generated by applying the standard version of the CFI first and then reapplied it by phrasing its items in religious terms. Audio-recorded narratives so derived were typologically extracted for religious content and analysed thematically. Although only one of its questions on cultural identity explicitly refers to religion, the core CFI nonetheless yielded religious themes. These were similar to the themes emerging from the adapted CFI. They expressed inter alia, anger, shame and gains through personal (rather than organised) religion. The adapted CFI resulted in embellishment of religious content and clinically important revelations that inform on beliefs about suicide and feelings of guilt.