Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T00:23:14.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic Losses Associated with Chronic Mental Disorder in a Developing Country

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Joseph Westermeyer
Joseph Westermeyer*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This study was undertaken in a society without psychiatric services to assess the economic losses associated there with major mental disorder. Such data are important in assessing the cost/benefit of services for major mental disorders.

A survey was conducted in 27 representative villages of Laos, each containing about 200–300 people; 35 mentally ill subjects were identified. Data were obtained on expenditure for treatment, loss of productivity, and other economic losses (eg., destruction of property); demographic data and clinical rating scales were also obtained, and compared with economic variables.

The data show wide variability in expenditures for treatment, but losses of productivity were consistently high; acute losses, while impressive due to their suddeness and obvious wastefulness, were comparatively small relative to others. Demographic data were not associated with loss in productivity. Certain psychopathological parameters, ie., more psychopathology, less productivity, were inversely correlated with productivity. Psychosocial function scales were strongly and directly correlated with productivity.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 144 , Issue 5 , May 1984 , pp. 475 - 481
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beals, A. R. (1976) Strategies of resort to curers in South India, pp. 184–200. In Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study (ed. Leslie, C.). Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bertera, E. M. & Bertera, R. L. (1981) The cost-effectiveness of telephone vs. counseling for hypertensive patients: A pilot study. American Journal of Public Health, 71, 626–30.Google Scholar
Bowman, K. M. (1956) Psychiatry in the Far East. American Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 919–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dube, K. C. (1970) A study of the prevalence of mental illness in Uttar Pradish, India. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 46, 327–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Endicott, J., Spitzer, R. L., Fleiss, J. L. & Cohen, J. (1976) The Global Assessment Scale: A procedure measuring overall severity of psychiatric disturbance. In ECDEU Assessment Manual for Psychopharmacology (ed. Guy, W.). Washington, D.C.: Department of Health, Education, Welfare.Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1961) Asylums. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Gunderson, J. G. & Mosler, L. R. (1975) The cost of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychaitry, 132, 901–6.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M. (1958) The assessment of anxiety states by rating. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 32, 50–5.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M. (1967) Development of a rating scale for the primary depressive illness. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 6, 278–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hartunian, N. S., Smart, C. N. & Thompson, M. S. (1980) The incidence and economic costs of cancer, motor vehicle injuries, coronary heart disease, and stroke: A comparative study. American Journal of Public Health, 70, 1249–60.Google Scholar
Honigfeld, G. & Klett, G. (1965) The Nurses' Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation (NOSIE): A new scale for measuring improvement in chronic schizophrenia. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 21, 65–71.Google Scholar
Leighton, A. H., Lambo, T. A., Hughes, C. C. et al (1963) Psychiatric Disorder Among the Yoruba. Ithica, New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Laing, R. D. (1960) The Divided Self: A Study of Sanity and Madness. Chicago: Quadrangle.Google Scholar
Linn, M. W., Schulthorpe, W. B., Evje, M., Slater, P. M. & Goodman, S. P. (1966) A Social Dysfunction Rating Scale. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 6, 299–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, T. Y. (1953) A study of mental disorders in Chinese and other cultures. Psychiatry, 16, 313–36.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. & Raman, A. C. (1971) The chronicity of schizophrenia in indigenous tropical peoples: Results of a 12 year follow-up survey in Mauritius. British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 489–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neki, J. S. (1973) Psychiatry in South-East Asia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 257–69.Google Scholar
Overall, J. E. & Gorham, D. R. (1962) The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Psychosocial Reports, 10, 799–812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rockland, L. H. & Pollin, W. (1965) Quantification of psychiatric mental status. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 23–8.Google Scholar
Schroeder, S. A., Showstack, J. A. & Schwartz, J. (1981) Survival of adult high-cost patients: Report of a follow-up study from nine acute-care hospitals. Journal of the American Medical Association, 245, 1446–59.Google ScholarPubMed
Szasz, T. (1963) The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Mental Illness. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Waxler, N. E. (1974) Culture and mental illness: A social labeling perspective. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 159, 379–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westermeyer, J. (1969) Mortality and psychosis in a peasant society. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 166, 769–74.Google Scholar
Westermeyer, J. & Kroll, J. (1978) Violence and mental illness in a peasant society: Characteristics of violent behaviors and “folk” use of restraints. British Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 529–41.Google Scholar
Westermeyer, J. & Wintrob, R. (1979) “Folk” criteria for the diagnosis of mental illness in rural Laos: On being insane in sane places. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 755–61.Google ScholarPubMed
Westermeyer, J. & Wintrob, R. (1979) “Folk” explanations of mental illness in rural Laos, American Journal of Psychiatry. 136, 901–5.Google Scholar
Westermeyer, J. & Sines, L. (1979) Cross-cultural psychiatric diagnosis with a study of interrater reliability in two rating contexts. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 15, 199–213.Google Scholar
Westermeyer, J. (1980) Influence of mental illness on marriage, reproduction and parenting in a society without psychiatric services. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 168, 164–20.Google Scholar
Westermeyer, J. (1980) Mental illness in a peasant society: Social outcomes. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 1390–4.Google Scholar
Westermeyer, J. & Pattison, E. M. (1981) Social networks and mental illness in a peasant society. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 7, 125–34.Google Scholar
Westermeyer, J. (1981) Mental disorder in a peasant society, Personal consequences. Journal of Operational Psychiatry, 12, 121–6.Google Scholar
Westermeyer, J. & Neider, J. (1981) Mentally ill foragers and beggars in a peasant society: Their social networks and psychopathology. International Journal of Family Psychiatry, 3, 295–309.Google Scholar
Westermeyer, J. & Zimmerman, R. (1981) Lao folk diagnosis for mental disorder: A comparison with psychiatric diagnoses. Medical Anthropology, 5, 425–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.