Psychiatric Times issues periodic special reports, and the
latest one features a wealth of articles and ideas on cross-
cultural psychiatry. Ronald Wintrob, chair of the World
Psychiatric Association–Transcultural Psychiatry Section, writes
the Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychiatry for this special
report. He notes how migration has increased over the past 20
years, and that 12.86% of the US population are immigrants.
Psychiatrists have put increasing effort into engaging these
populations. One of the most practical applications of cultural
psychiatry to clinical practice in all fields of medicine is the
open-ended questioning of patients and their families about
their personal and family background characteristics. This
includes identifying features of race, ethnicity, religion, and
socioeconomic class, relevant immigration history, experiences
of acculturative stress, and personal and family aspirations. A
discussion of these background characteristics can lead
naturally to the clinician’s exploration of