African–Caribbeans and schizophrenia: contributing factors

Abstract

Dinesh Bhugra is a reader in cultural psychiatry and heads the Section of Cultural Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry (De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF). His research interests include cultural factors and social psychiatry, sexual dysfunction and sexual deviation. Kamaldeep Bhui is a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at St Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine, London. He is interested in cultural psychiatry and his research interests include working with refugees, religion and psychiatry and sexual dysfunction.

Considering the cultural context in psychopathology formulations

“…[54] Often, culturefocused researchers have found that this process led to frequent misdiagnoses. [7] This is particularly evident if considering the body of knowledge signifying, for example, that auditory hallucinations are dependent on the pathoplastic influences of culture. [7] The manifestation of pathology across cultures is diverse.…”

“…[7] This is particularly evident if considering the body of knowledge signifying, for example, that auditory hallucinations are dependent on the pathoplastic influences of culture. [7] The manifestation of pathology across cultures is diverse. [17] Symptoms, therefore, ought to be largely interpreted within the cultural context.…”

“…This is particularly evident if one considers the body of knowledge signifying, for example, that auditory hallucinations are dependent on the pathoplastic influences of culture -that is, the ways in which psychological distress manifests. [7] Certainly, research into culture will help clinical formulation develop towards a more holistic approach. While there is currently an emphasis …”

“…None of the formulations, however, appear to have received as much academic interest as the Western view of mental illness. Bhugra and Bhui [7] hold that the misdiagnoses of what they describe as Western-specific psychopathology may occur due to limited cultural awareness. This is particularly evident if one considers the body of knowledge signifying, for example, that auditory hallucinations are dependent on the pathoplastic influences of culture -that is, the ways in which psychological distress manifests.…”

Ethnicity and its relevance in a seven-year admission cohort to an English national adolescent medium secure health service unit

“…There are ongoing debates about the shortfalls in present-day psychiatric services when dealing with ethnic minority cultures, and fears about such ethnic minority patients being over-diagnosed with psychotic illnesses due to a lack of awareness of cultural norms (Bailey et al, 2004;Bhugra and Bhui, 2001). There was, however, no significant difference found between ethnic groups in terms of psychiatric diagnosis in this study.…”