SynthesisPsychiatric services (Washington, D.C.)2010
Impact of patient language proficiency and interpreter service use on the quality of psychiatric care: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.), 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
83 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- EPA guidance on cultural competence training: a critical update and meta-review.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Pain Research Among Limited English Proficiency Patient Populations in Health care.Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses · 2024Pooled it
- Establishing reliability and validity for mental health screening instruments in resource-constrained settings: Systematic review of the PHQ-9 and key recommendations.Psychiatry research · 2020Pooled it
- The prevalence of mental illness in refugees and asylum seekers: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2020Pooled it
- The Need for More Prehospital Research on Language Barriers: A Narrative Review.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2015Pooled it
- Self-perceived problems of Afghan asylum seekers and refugees and their experiences with a short psychological intervention.BMC public health · 2023Trial
- Impact on routine psychiatric diagnostic practice from implementing the DSM-5 cultural formulation interview: a pragmatic RCT in Sweden.BMC psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Patient and clinician experiences of language barriers in Qatar's multilingual public mental health care: a qualitative study.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2026Article
- When Language Is Clinical Data: Interpreter-Mediated Interviewing in Psychiatric Training.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Associations between interpreter dependency and rehabilitation outcomes and care processes following acquired brain injury: a Swedish registry-based cohort study.Journal of rehabilitation medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Lost in Translation: Barriers in Psychiatric Care for Patients With Communication Impairments.Cureus · 2026Article
- Respecting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Pluralism and Human Rights in Civil Society.Transcultural psychiatry · 2026Article
- Access to Mental Health Treatment Services in Asian Languages.JAMA health forum · 2026Article
- Impact of Asian Language-Speaking Mental Health Providers on Asian American Patient Volume in Mental Health Treatment Facilities: Moderating Role of Medicaid Spending.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Interpreting in healthcare: a systematic search and mapping of ethical issues in health literature.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Patient Experience and Perception of First Language Usage in Healthcare: The Welsh Perspective.Journal of patient experience · 2026Article
- Testing a novel theoretical framework to study language services implementation in health care.PEC innovation · 2025Article
- Evaluation of a training programme for interpreters in the field of trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy - one year follow-up.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
- Interpretation inaccuracies in pain communication between Hmong patients and clinicians in the USA: A conversation analysis informed study.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThis literature review examined the effects of patients' limited English proficiency and use of professional and ad hoc interpreters on the quality of psychiatric care.
methodsPubMed, PsycINFO, and CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) were systematically searched for English-language publications from inception of each database to April 2009. Reference lists were reviewed, and expert sources were consulted. Among the 321 articles identified, 26 met inclusion criteria: peer-reviewed articles reporting primary data on clinical care for psychiatric disorders among patients with limited proficiency in English or in the provider's language.
resultsEvaluation in a patient's nonprimary language can lead to incomplete or distorted mental status assessment. Although both untrained and trained interpreters may make errors, untrained interpreters' errors may have greater clinical impact, compromising diagnostic accuracy and clinicians' detection of disordered thought or delusional content. Use of professional interpreters may improve disclosure in patient-provider communications, referral to specialty care, and patient satisfaction.
conclusionsLittle systematic research has addressed the impact of language proficiency or interpreter use on the quality of psychiatric care in contemporary U.S. settings. Findings are insufficient to inform evidence-based guidelines for improving quality of care among patients with limited English proficiency. Clinicians should be aware of the ways in which quality of care can be compromised when they evaluate patients in a nonprimary language or use an interpreter. Given U.S. demographic trends, future research should help guide practice and policy by addressing deficits in the evidence base.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.