Mental Health in Africa: I. the Extent of Mental Health Problems in Africa Today

Background: Population level data on mental health from Africa are limited, but available data indicate mental problems to represent a substantial public health problem. The negative impact of HIV on mental health suggests that this could particularly be the case in high prevalence populations. We examined the prevalence of mental distress, distribution patterns and the ways HIV might influence mental health among men and women in a general population.

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“…However, the patterns of association appear to be similar to other published literature. [ 18 , 19 , 41 - 43 ]…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental distress in the general population in Zambia: Impact of HIV and social factors

Chipimo

Fýlkesnes

2009

BMC Public Health

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“…Perhaps in response to this, there has been a tendency to downplay the importance of biological factors in cross-cultural psychiatry (German, 1987). Contrary to previously held lore, somatisation has been noted to be less, as opposed to more frequent, in people in less developed countries (Weiss, 1987).…”

Section: Cross-cultural Psychiatry and Parasitic Loadsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Parasitic infections and psychopathology: a preliminary hypothesis

Pachman

Belanger

1994

J. Biosoc. Sci.

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SummaryThe relationship between chronic parasitic loads and psychopathology is examined. Research suggests that: (1) psychiatric disorders are more prevalent in less developed countries where parasitic loads are more endemic; (2) individual patients with parasitic loads are more likely to exhibit mental status changes; (3) there is an improvement in the mental status of a subset of psychiatric patients following treatment for parasites. Inasmuch as the prevalence of parasitic content is underestimated in both more developed and less developed countries, an awareness of this relationship should increase understanding of the needs of infected individuals, and be taken into consideration when evaluating psychiatric patients.

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“…See, for example: Cohen 1970, Prakash 1990, p. 386, George 1994, p. 112, Gouda and Clancy-Smith 1998. On the framing of colonised people as children by colonial psychiatrists, see: German 1987, p. 435, Swartz 1995, p. 403, Bullard 2007. Some French authors, however, went even further.…”

Section: Endnotesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Infantilization of the Colonized: Medical and Psychiatric Descriptions of Drinking Habits in the Colonial Maghreb

Studer

2020

Re-Configurations

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French doctors and psychiatrists traveling through or working in the colonial Maghreb during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries commonly reported in their publications that the colonized they encountered reminded them of children. 1 They also described practically every aspect of the behavior of the colonized as childlike in some respect. While this equation of the colonized with children was by no means restricted to the medico-psychiatric source material and can be found in a variety of different colonial publications, 2 this chapter will focus on publications by doctors and psychiatrists, as their status as widely accepted experts and as alleged pillars of science and modernity made their statements, in the eyes of their French readership, more authoritative than those of other authors. Though this is usually not stated explicitly, the children imagined in these comparisons were presumably European, which accords with a long tradition of European medical and psychiatric experts comparing the colonized to an imaginary European normality. Yet comparisons of the colonized with children in the publications of French doctors and psychiatrists were more than just colorful and anecdotal descriptions of life in the colonies; they were part of an implicit, ongoing process of diagnosing the behavior of the colonized as intrinsically different from French behavior. These comparisons implicitly suggested that colonized adults and European children were roughly on the same developmental level, 3 and concluded that both groups had a similar relationship to French adults: that is, receiving education from them, following their lead, and letting them make important decisions

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Mental Health in Africa: I. the Extent of Mental Health Problems in Africa Today

Cited by 45 publications

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Mental distress in the general population in Zambia: Impact of HIV and social factors

Mental distress in the general population in Zambia: Impact of HIV and social factors

Parasitic infections and psychopathology: a preliminary hypothesis

The Infantilization of the Colonized: Medical and Psychiatric Descriptions of Drinking Habits in the Colonial Maghreb

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