The research ‘Depressive Turkish women in the Rijnmond Region’ was started to explore and describe the idiom of distress of the Turkish migrated women and to clarify diagnostic problems concerning their depressive disorder.

By means of a qualitative explorative research, first in a pilot of ten Turkish women, afterwards 20 Turkish women the presentation and the depressive complaints were investigated with the help of a bi-lingual diagnostic interview, Turkish-Dutch. The interview was developed in cooperation with Turkish psychiatrists/doctors.

Results will be discussed in the presentation. They clearly show that, at the first sight the idiom of distress is characterized by a range of somatic complaints. Clinicians who are insufficiently sensitive to cultural differences may not realize that these complaints may indicate a depressive disorder. Complaints of anxiety and agitation are just as frequent as the depressive complaints. To express their inner feelings the women use specific Turkish idiom.

According to ICD such cases should be classified as depressive disorders as well as generalized anxiety disorders. Because the range of complaints is so varied, these disordersmay be under-diagnosed in Turkish women.The diagnostic interview proved to be a very reliable instrument in diagnosing depressive-anxiety disorders in Turkish women. It will be translated in German, English and Turkish.