scholarly journals Meetings for the relatives of refugees from Vietnam suffering from schizophrenia

1990 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 533-537
Author(s):  
M. J. Blackwell
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Explanatory Models ◽  
Transcultural Psychiatry

The problems of diagnosis in transcultural psychiatry and the ideological and anthropological questions raised have received much attention in the psychiatric literature over the last 15 years. Even when the diagnosis is not in dispute, specific problems are encountered in the delivery of psychiatric care to patients from ethnic minorities (Littlewood & Lipsedge, 1989; Rack, 1982). Different explanatory models of illness and treatment, linguistic and cultural misunderstandings and numerous, apparently minor, practical difficulties bedevil treatment. Contributions to the psychiatric literature of practical use in management and service designs have been sparse.

scholarly journals Culture‑Bound Syndromes and Cultural Concepts of Distress in Psychiatry

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-126
Author(s):  
Tomás Teodoro ◽  
Pedro Afonso
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Models ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Idioms Of Distress ◽  
Transcultural Psychiatry ◽  
Cultural Concepts ◽  
Current Classification ◽  
Contextual Characteristics ◽  
Cultural Concepts Of Distress ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The Relationship

Culture‑bound syndromes (CBS) and cultural concepts of distress include syndromes or disease manifestations whose occurrence is related to particular cultural contexts. The term CBS is controversial, because ultimately all psychiatric and medical conditions are associated with culture. They constitute different points of view on mental health based on alternative explanatory models of mental distress. These idioms of distress have experienced a growing interest in Western countries either by an increase in the number of cases or the influence that transcultural psychiatry has come to conquer. This review describes clinical, epidemiological and contextual characteristics of most commonly reported CBS and briefly discusses the relationship between culture and psychiatric disorders. Modern societies are increasingly multi‑ethnic and multicultural and thus, discussion of these concepts remains relevant, aiming to integrate CBS in current classification systems or establishing criteria that best define them as legitimate nosological entities.

scholarly journals Minority status, stigma, prejudice and bullying: growing up in jeopardy

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-53
Author(s):  
David Skuse
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Mental Health Disorders ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Disorders

Stigma and alienation are suffered by many individuals with mental health disorders, in societies around the world. Rejection is all the more common among those who have intellectual disabilities or who are from ethnic minorities. In this issue, three papers consider the suffering experienced by patients with vulnerabilities that militate against their being in receipt of the psychiatric care they assuredly deserve.

Mental health of traumatized refugees and asylum seekers: Experiences of a centre of transcultural psychiatry in Hannover, Germany

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S398-S398 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Altunoz ◽  
S. Castro Nunez ◽  
I.T. Graef Calliess
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Transcultural Psychiatry ◽  
Competing Interest ◽  
Collection Form ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

IntroductionGermany has always been an important host country for traumatized refugees and asylum seekers. Although, recently an increasing number of investigations about mental health of individual migrant groups have been published in Germany, there is a paucity of research concerning mental health of asylum seekers and refugees.Aims-objectivesTo investigate socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of traumatized refugees-asylum seekers who were applied to an outpatient psychiatry clinic in Germany.MethodA standardized data collection form (socio-demographics, diagnosis, suicidality, etc.) was filled by therapists for each traumatized refugee-asylum seeker who was applied to outpatient clinic of Klinikum Wahrendorff-Centre of Transcultural Psychiatry between April 2013 and October 2015.ResultsFifty-eight traumatized refugees-asylum seekers (F/M = 27/31, age: 34.7 ± 1.4) were assessed. 53 (91.4%) of them were assessed via interpreters. Thirty (51.7%) of them were staying in refugee-dormitories, 25 (43.1%) of them were living alone. They’ve been living in Germany for 19.9 ± 16 months (min: 1–max: 82). Psychiatric symptoms appeared before 29.9 ± 19 months. Time to reach to psychiatric care in Germany was 14.2 ± 11 months. Psychiatric diagnoses were posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): 12 (21%), depression + PTSD: 44 (76%), depression: 2 (3%). Fifty-three (91.4%) of them had suicidal ideation and 16 (27.6%) of them had at least one suicide attempt before.ConclusionsTraumatized refugees in this study have high rates of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts and it takes months to years for them to reach a psychiatric care. Therefore, strategies should be developed for early detection of PTSD symptoms in traumatized refugees and access barriers to reach a psychiatric care should be overcome.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

scholarly journals Implementation of the Cultural Formulation through a newly developed Brief Cultural Interview: Pilot data from the Netherlands

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon P. N. Groen ◽  
Annemiek Richters ◽  
Cornelis J. Laban ◽  
Walter L. J. M. Devillé
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Transcultural Psychiatry ◽  
Cultural Formulation ◽  
Diverse Patient Population ◽  
Dsm Iv ◽  
Health Institutions ◽  
Secondary Finding

The Outline for a Cultural Formulation (OCF) has remained underutilized in clinical practice since its publication in the DSM-IV in 1994. In the Netherlands, a Cultural Interview (CI) was developed in 2002 as a tool to facilitate use of the OCF in clinical practice. The time needed to conduct the interview, however, prevented its systematic implementation within mental health institutions. This article presents the development of a shortened and adapted version, the Brief Cultural Interview (BCI), and a pilot study on the feasibility, acceptability, and utility of its implementation with refugee and asylum seeking patients in a Dutch centre for transcultural psychiatry. Results show that the brief version scores better on feasibility and acceptability, while utility for clinical practice remains similar to that of the original CI. These results support the systematic use of the OCF in psychiatric care for a culturally diverse patient population through the application of a relatively brief cultural interview. A secondary finding of the study is that patients’ cultural identity was considered by clinicians to be more relevant in the treatment planning sessions than their illness explanations.

scholarly journals Community-initiated research: a study of psychiatrists' conceptualisations of ‘cannabis psychosis’

1988 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 486-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Littlewood
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Black Community ◽  
Transcultural Psychiatry ◽  
Community Groups ◽  
Future Work

Concern among black and ethnic minorities with current research in ‘transcultural psychiatry’ entails future work taking into account their collaboration to minimise the possibility that it is prejudicial to their interests. An instance is given of a project initiated by black community groups which looks at psychiatric conceptualisations of a diagnosis commonly used locally in inner-city Birmingham: cannabis psychosis. Responsibility remains with the researcher.

Transcultural Psychiatry

1991 ◽  
Vol 158 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Cox
Keyword(s):  
Good Practice ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Explanatory Models ◽  
World Health ◽  
Transcultural Psychiatry ◽  
Cultural Psychiatry ◽  
The World ◽  
Review Editor ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Academic Interests

The perspective for this review is that of a general psychiatrist who is convinced of the clinical relevance of sociocultural psychiatry for a full, multimodel understanding of mental illness, and is aware of the intellectual stimulus which occurs when the clinical and research vistas extend from one cultural unit to another (i.e.transcultural psychiatry). My specific purpose therefore is to name some books which can help establish ‘good practice’ in multicultural Britain and are useful reference texts for teaching, as well as research. The choice of books inevitably reflects my own clinical and academic interests, and the volumes received from the review editor of this Journal over recent years. Any particularly disenfranchised reader will nevertheless find sufficient reference to other aspects of this fascinating field which has now become central to much present day clinical practice; transcultural psychiatry has been regarded as having ‘come of age’ and yet paradoxically also as beginning ‘at home’. Evidence in support of these developmental aphorisms can be culled from the publication of at least 20 books on cultural psychiatry in the last two decades, as well as from the final reports of the World Health Organization epidemiological studies which may have reassured the dubious that the major psychoses, such as schizophrenia and manic-depression, and even the neuroses are universally recognised, even if their presentation and ‘explanatory models' differ radically between some cultures, although are similar in others.

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