[Mental illness among immigrants and refugees. Are needs and available care adequate?]

A considerable proportion of the Swedish population are of immigrant or refugee origin. This puts new demands on psychiatric care. In Stockholm county, immigrants of non-Scandinavian origin are characterised by lower psychiatric care utilisation rates than are the remainder of the county population. Population studies of multi-ethnic suburban areas in west Stockholm have shown the non-Scandinavian subgroup of the population to be characterised by somewhat lower utilisation of acute and short-term psychiatric care, as compared with native Swedes, but a clearly higher utilisation of primary psychiatric care facilities. Available evidence suggests the existence of several subgroups with high frequencies of mental ill-health in these areas. If sectorized psychiatry is to meet the demands of the population as a whole, economic prioritization is needed, as well as improved knowledge and methodology regarding cross-cultural psychiatry.