ISSN:0954-0261    

DOI:10.3109/09540269309028302

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1993

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

This paper examines the obstacles to a resolution of conflict between anthropology and psychiatry: historical, professional methodological and theoretical. Conflict at the level of theory derives from the fact that psychiatrists work on universalist assumptions and anthropologists on relativist assumptions. Commitment to either position is maintained at a cost of ignoring attendant logical problems. In its dogmatic form, the relativist position fails to address the real problems of translation involved in any cross-cultural exercise.

ISSN:0954-0261    

DOI:10.3109/09540269309028303

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1993

数据来源: Taylor

ISSN:0954-0261    

DOI:10.3109/09540269309028304

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1993

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

Dysphoria is a universal human phenomenon, while the concepts of depressive disorder were developed within a Western intellectual culture. Clearly, the utility of these concepts would be enhanced if their applicability extended beyond their culture of origin. Do they adequately encompass the experience of dysphoria in other cultures? This question has both conceptual and empirical aspects, which I explore in this paper. First, it is clear that the experience of depression is recognizable in any culture in which it has been sought, although in some cases the expression of distress is primarily couched in somatic terms or through the use of somatic metaphors. Secondly, the psychological components can usually be elicited even where they are not volunteered. Thirdly, although there may be indigenous categories of mental illness, this does not invalidate the application of international psychiatric categories for epidemiological purposes, since the latter are heuristic devices that derive their justification from their empirical utility. I then go on to review the (so far scanty) literature relevant to cross-cultural epidemiological study.

ISSN:0954-0261    

DOI:10.3109/09540269309028305

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1993

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

Some of the earliest descriptions of schizophrenia have been from India, a country known for its heterogeneity and diversity. Research on schizophrenia in India has largely confined itself to social aspects of the illness, which have been intriguing and stimulating to researchers. This paper primarily focuses itself on certain aspects of social research in schizophrenia, with particular emphasis on the distribution of the disease, its nature, course and outcome. It does not claim to be a comprehensive review of all Indian work in these areas, but indicates the trends which have been observed during the last decade or so.

ISSN:0954-0261    

DOI:10.3109/09540269309028306

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1993

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

India has 42 million elderlies (60+) constituting 6% of population (1981 census). This is expected to cross 60 millions by the turn of the century and will more than double by AD 2025. Three-quarters of them are young-old and the rest old-old. Eighty percent of the country's population and 83% of the elderlies live in villages. India's scriptures fixed a life span of 100 years recommending incessant activity. Man's life is demarcated into four successive stages (Ashramas): of studentship, the householder, an ascetic and the forest dweller'. The last two favour‘disengagement' and are prescribed for the old. In practice, they are rarely followed. The‘joint-family' has fissured resulting in altered intrafamily roles and care of the elderly precarious. Location within the family does not assure one's integration; while living alone does not necessarily mean one's social isolation. The state of well being varies from 22.1% to 52.1% in the elderlies. The prevalence rate of mental morbidity is 89/1000 elderlies with geriatric depression accounting for 60/1000. Psychiatric disorder is seldom an isolated event and is associated with a high degree of physical comorbidity. First episode of mania is not uncommon. Suicides have been on the rise and the rate is 12/100,000; higher than the National rate: 7/100,000. Health care of the aged is to be a‘total' one comprising physical, psychological, social, economical, nutritional, educational and rehabilitational aspects. In the management of the final challenge’, philosophical concepts should form part of the measures adopted.

ISSN:0954-0261    

DOI:10.3109/09540269309028307

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1993

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

This article looks at the current literature on minority ethnic elders and mental health problems in the UK. It raises fundamental problems in definition, since the literature contains great variations in definitions of ethnicity and old age. It relates issues concerning ethnicity with gender, geography and family structure. In the second part of the article, the authors review the influential theory of triple jeopardy and discuss the interplay of views about cultural factors and medical responses to health and illness in this context. Communication is used as an example of a commonly held problem but it is argued that language problems are often over-simplified and over-generalized. The authors consider broad questions of access to psychiatric services for minority ethnic elders, then focus on diagnostic difficulties with dementia and depression to illustrate particular problems. The article concludes that there is a general lack of research from the UK about ethnic elders and mental health, in particular about coping strategies and strengths among individuals, families and communities. The authors argue that attention to definitions may also be fruitful for policy-makers and researchers.

ISSN:0954-0261    

DOI:10.3109/09540269309028308

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1993

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

The influence of culture on neurotic disorders and their epidemiology, incidence, clinical pattern and even their response to psychotropic drugs have been studied only sparingly. However, most of the cross-cultural differences in the incidence of mental illness pertain to the area of neurosis. But, after accounting for the various confounding variables, no true major difference in the prevalence of neurosis can be confirmed. There are apparently no‘true' culturally unique neurotic disorders, though distribution of some neurotic disorders varies across cultures. There are also some differences in the psychopathology of neurosis between different cultures. Cultural factors seem to influence the presentation of depressive neurosis, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders. Hysteria seems to be becoming less prevalent all over the world, though at a slower rate in some cultures. Anxiety, phobia and neuresthenia have unique presentation in some of the cultural backgrounds, usually orientals. Cultural factors appear to have some pathoplastic effect on neurotic disorders since the relative distribution of depression, conversion reaction, anxiety, somatoform disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder has some differences from one culture to another. The role of cultural factors in the distribution, presentation, and management of neurosis have been discussed in this chapter.

ISSN:0954-0261    

DOI:10.3109/09540269309028309

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1993

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

The history of psychiatry in the Caribbean island of Jamaica is presented based on ethnohistoriographic accounts of large group meetings of patients and staff of the Bellevue State Mental Hospital in the late 1970s. The development of psychiatric services is described from pre-colonial days of the indigenous Arawak Indians. The existing mental hospital was established in 1862 by the British Colonial Government, and the Mental Hospital Act of 1873 created the system whereby the mentally ill were arrested for lunacy and incarcerated in the mental hospital by Magistrates order. The development of a Community Psychiatric Service and the establishment of a deinstitutionalization programme for the mental Hospital in the decade of the 1960s and 70s is described, and a review of the private and public community services presently existing in the island is also described. A brief review of the existing literature on Jamaican psychopathology is presented, including a discussion on schizophrenia in Afro-Caribbeans, other common psychiatric conditions, developments in psychotherapy in Jamaicans, and psychodynamic issues of cultural identity.

ISSN:0954-0261    

DOI:10.3109/09540269309028310

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1993

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

Eating disorders have long been considered to have important cultural determinants. They are said to be rare in both sexes in developing countries and in men in Western societies. Pressures to maintain a slim body shape and the changing role of women in society are said to be central. In this article the evidence for the role of cultural factors is evaluated and new directions for research suggested. It is concluded that although there are striking variations in the incidence and pattern of eating disorders, many of our ideas on putative cultural mechanisms remain confused and lacking in empirical support. The study of cultural variation may, nevertheless, hold the key to the aetiology of these disorders.

ISSN:0954-0261    

DOI:10.3109/09540269309028311

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1993

数据来源: Taylor