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12 - Psychiatric epidemiology and its contributions to cultural psychiatry

from Part II - Culture and mental health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2009

By
Robert Kohn  and
Kamaldeep Bhui
Edited by
Dinesh Bhugra  and
Kamaldeep Bhui
Robert Kohn
Affiliation:
Butler Hospital 345 Blackstone Blvd Providence RI 02906 USA
Kamaldeep Bhui
Affiliation:
Department of Cultural Psychiatry and Epidemiology Institute of Community Health Sciences Queen Mary London E1 4NS UK
Dinesh Bhugra
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
Kamaldeep Bhui
Affiliation:
Barts & The London, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry
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Summary

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

The relationship between cultural psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology is of constructive tension. Although in certain fields of cultural psychiatry epidemiology studies are problematic because of small numbers, the basic premise of epidemiology can be employed provided the interpretation of the findings is clearly contextualized. The measurement of psychopathology across cultures using the same set of tools is fraught with major difficulties. The category fallacy under these circumstances raises critical questions. It is also of interest that often these assessment tools move from Euro-US centric settings to the rest of the world, rather than the other way around.

Kohn and Bhui examine the contribution of psychiatric epidemiology to cultural psychiatry, and some controversial questions. They argue that psychiatric epidemiology has evolved since the study by Jarvis in 1855 in which higher rates of mental illness were found among the Irish immigrants in the pauper classes in Massachusetts, USA. Since then, psychiatric epidemiology has undergone at least three generations of evolution, followed most recently by the fourth stage from which cultural epidemiology has emerged as the a new branch of epidemiology, taking in perspectives from medical anthropology, epidemiology and public health. The implications of these changes are tremendous, both for clinicians and researchers.

Introduction

The methodological advances of psychiatric epidemiology revealed the limitations of earlier psychiatric research. These critiques had implications for the use of diagnostic instruments, and for the methodological advances needed to study cultures and compare mental-health problems in diverse cultural groups.

Type
Chapter
Information
Textbook of Cultural Psychiatry , pp. 157 - 168
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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