Reporting Cultural Adaptation in Psychological Trials – The RECAPT criteria

Authors

  • Eva Heim Orcid
    Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
  • Ricarda Mewes
    Outpatient Unit for Research, Teaching and Practice, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • Jinane Abi Ramia
    National Mental Health Programme – Ministry of Public Health, Beirut, Lebanon; Department of Clinical, Neuro- and Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Heide Glaesmer
    Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
  • Brian Hall
    Global Public Health, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China
  • Melissa Harper Shehadeh
    Global Public Health, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China
  • Burçin Ünlü
    PsyQ, Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands
  • Schahryar Kananian
    Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
  • Brandon A. Kohrt
    Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
  • Franziska Lechner-Meichsner
    Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
  • Annett Lotzin
    Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
  • Marie Rose Moro
    Inserm, Hôpital Cochin, AP-HP, Paris University, Paris, France
  • Rahmeth Radjack
    Inserm, Hôpital Cochin, AP-HP, Paris University, Paris, France
  • Alicia Salamanca-Sanabria
    Future Health Technologies, Singapore-ETH Centre, Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore, Singapore
  • Daisy R. Singla
    Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Toronto, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute, Toronto, Canada
  • Annabelle Starck
    Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
  • Gesine Sturm
    Laboratoire Cliniques Psychopathologique et Interculturelle LCPI EA 4591, Université Toulouse II - Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France
  • Wietse Tol
    Section for Global Health, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Cornelia Weise
    Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
  • Christine Knaevelsrud
    Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Abstract

Background: There is a lack of empirical evidence on the level of cultural adaptation required for psychological interventions developed in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies to be effective for the treatment of common mental disorders among culturally and ethnically diverse groups. This lack of evidence is partly due to insufficient documentation of cultural adaptation in psychological trials. Standardised documentation is needed in order to enhance empirical and meta-analytic evidence.
Process: A “Task force for cultural adaptation of mental health interventions for refugees” was established to harmonise and document the cultural adaptation process across several randomised controlled trials testing psychological interventions for mental health among refugee populations in Germany. Based on the collected experiences, a sub-group of the task force developed the reporting criteria presented in this paper. Thereafter, an online survey with international experts in cultural adaptation of psychological interventions was conducted, including two rounds of feedback.
Results: The consolidation process resulted in eleven reporting criteria to guide and document the process of cultural adaptation of psychological interventions in clinical trials. A template for documenting this process is provided. The eleven criteria are structured along A) Set-up; B) Formative research methods; C) Intervention adaptation; D) Measuring outcomes and implementation.
Conclusions: Reporting on cultural adaptation more consistently in future psychological trials will hopefully improve the quality of evidence and contribute to examining the effect of cultural adaptation on treatment efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability.

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