IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v47y2001i3p1-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transcultural Psychiatry: Some Social and Epidemiological Research Issues

Author

Listed:
  • Kamaldeep Bhui

    (Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF)

  • Dinesh Bhugra

    (Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF)

Abstract

Background: Mental Health Research across cultural groups is often criticised for using imprecise measures of cultural group and for using outcome measures as if they have universal validity. Aims: 1. To Investigate the effect of using different cultural group variables on the findings of a survey of prevalence of Common Mental Disorders. 2. To demonstrate that assumptions of validity for outcomes measures can affect the interpretation of data from prevalence surveys. Methods: We recruited Punjabi and English subjects to a phase prevalence survey that included the Amritsar Depression Inventory and the General Health Ques tionnaire as screening instruments. The Clinical Interview Schedule was the out come measure. This paper reports on a secondary analysis of the data. We used ethnic group, place of birth, religion, first language and language spoken at interview as possible cultural group variables and compared the prevalence estimates. We then considered the limitations of conventional methods to assess prevalence, by looking at mean scores on each of the three instruments in both cultural groups. Results: Cultural group variables did not influence the prevalence estimates for Common Mental Disorder. Although conventional scoring methods showed no difference in prevalence across cultures, the mean scores on each instrument, when compared across cultural groups, differed for the Amritsar Depression inventory. This instrument showed a higher mean score for the Punjabis suggesting a higher prevalence. The findings are discussed in the context of value laden 'assumptions' about validity. Conclusions: The findings of prevalence surveys depend on assumptions of validity. The 'culture' of psychiatry is a closed system in which validation studies support its basic assumptions.

Suggested Citation

  • Kamaldeep Bhui & Dinesh Bhugra, 2001. "Transcultural Psychiatry: Some Social and Epidemiological Research Issues," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 47(3), pages 1-9, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:47:y:2001:i:3:p:1-9
    DOI: 10.1177/002076400104700301
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002076400104700301
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/002076400104700301?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. F. Gonidakis & E. Lembesi & V. P. Kontaxakis & B. J. Havaki-Kontaxaki & D. Ploumpidis & M. Madianos & G. N. Papadimitriou, 2013. "A study of acculturation in psychotic and non-psychotic immigrants living in Athens," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 59(2), pages 157-164, March.
    2. J.-F. Levesque & S. Mukherjee & D. Grimard & A. Boivin & S. Mishra, 2013. "Measuring the prevalence of chronic diseases using population surveys by pooling self-reported symptoms, diagnosis and treatments: results from the World Health Survey of 2003 for South Asia," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(3), pages 435-447, June.
    3. B. Hubner-Liebermann & H. Spießl & K. Iwai & C. Cording, 2005. "Treatment of Schizophrenia: Implications Derived from an Intercultural Hospital Comparison between Germany and Japan," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 51(1), pages 83-96, March.
    4. Neil Aggarwal, 2008. "Editorial: Farmer Suicides in India: The Role of Psychiatry and Anthropology," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 54(4), pages 291-292, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:47:y:2001:i:3:p:1-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.