A Cross-Cultural Survey of Schizophrenic Symptomatology

The Phenomenological Diversity of Hallucinations: Some theoretical and clinical implications

“…For example, auditory hallucinations seem to be the most frequently reported by schizophrenic patients in the West, with visual hallucinations only appearing in the more deteriorated patients (Strauss, 1962;Mueser, Bellack, & Brady, 1990). In contrast, a number of studies have found that visual hallucinations are a more common type of hallucination in African and Asian countries compared to the West (Al-Issa, 1977, 1978Murphy et al, 1963;Ndetei & Singh, 1983;Ndetei & Vadher, 1984;Sartorius et al, 1986;Zarroug, 1975). More recently, Okulate and Jones (2003) report that the frequency of auditory hallucinations that were commanding, abusive, cursing, arguing and frightening was generally lower among their Nigerian schizophrenic patients compared with those in the UK, based on the study by Nayani and David (1996).…”

Culture and schizophrenia

“…First, Lorr and Klett (1969) applied their factor-analytically derived typology of psychotic syndromes in a study of a total of 1,100 psychotic patients sampled from six countries (England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Sweden) and came to the conclusion that, allowing for certain variations, the same original six psychotic types could be found among the patients in each country. Secondly, in a questionnaire survey, designed to tap psychiatrists' impressions of the clinical manifestations of schizophrenia in 27 countries, Murphy et al (1963) found (1) that, despite some variation, there was a 'common, agreed method of viewing and reporting on schizophrenia' among psychiatrists from different cultural backgrounds, probably reflecting the common factors between the several psychiatric schools of thought in which the participants in the exercise had been trained, but (2) that 'doubt has been thrown on the picutre which Euro-American psychiatry has built up of the schizophrenic process'. This doubt was the result of the significant differences they observed in the frequency with which certain manifestations of schizophrenia were reported in the different cultures.…”

Schizophrenic Disorders among Turkish Migrants in Germany

“…In an early cross-cultural survey Murphy et al [4] found cultural differences not only in the subtypes of schizophrenia, but also in reported symptoms of schizophrenic patients. Ndetei and Singh [5][6][7] found delusions, hallucinations and first-rank symptoms (FRS) to be as frequent in Kenyan as in English schizophrenics, although visual hallucinations were found to be more common among Kenyan schizophrenics.…”