RESUMO
Various studies have shown: (i) increased rates of psychoses in immigrants to Britain, and a particularly high rate of schizophrenia in the West Indian- and West African-born; and (ii) a greater proportion of atypical psychoses in immigrants. A retrospective study of psychotic inpatients from a London psychiatric unit demonstrated increased rates of schizophrenia in patients from the Caribbean and West Africa. These patients included a high proportion of those with paranoid and religious phenomenology, those with frequent changes of diagnosis, formal admissions, and married women. The West Indian-born had been in Britain for nearly 10 years before first seeing a psychiatrist and, if they had an illness with religious symptomatology, were likely to have been in hospital for only 3 weeks. Rates of schizophrenia without paranoid phenomenology were similar in each ethnic group. It is suggested that the increase in the diagnosis of schizophrenia in the West Indian-born, and possibly in the West African-born, may be due in part to the occurrence of acute psychotic reactions which are diagnosed as schizophrenia.
Assuntos
Emigração e Imigração , Etnicidade/psicologia , Transtornos Psicóticos/epidemiologia , Adolescente , Adulto , África Ocidental/etnologia , Ásia/etnologia , Europa (Continente)/etnologia , Feminino , Humanos , Irlanda/etnologia , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Esquizofrenia/epidemiologia , Fatores Socioeconômicos , Reino Unido , Índias Ocidentais/etnologiaRESUMO
A prospective study of patients with religious delusions identified 24 West Indian and West African patients. Those who had none of Schneider's first-rank symptoms of schizophrenia (principally West Indians) differed from those who did by virtue of early religious commitment, life-long religious experiences, an acute admission precipitated by social events, a greater chance of having their diagnosis changed, less than 10 different PSE syndromes, the absence of 'twentieth-century' delusions, and the presentation of malevolent witchcraft as the sole explanation of the episode. It is suggested that this group can usefully be considered as demonstrating an acute psychotic reaction of the type previously described in Africa and the Caribbean.
Assuntos
Etnicidade/psicologia , Transtornos Psicóticos/epidemiologia , Doença Aguda , Adulto , África Ocidental/etnologia , Características Culturais , Feminino , Humanos , Londres , Masculino , Transtornos Psicóticos/diagnóstico , Religião , Fatores Socioeconômicos , Índias Ocidentais/etnologiaRESUMO
Various studies have demonstrated an increase in mental illness in black immigrans in Britain. A retrospective study of hospital records suggests that if the culturally atypical features of paranoid and religious flavour are taken into consideration, rates are then similar to those of the British-born. An interim report from an ongoing prospective study, using the Present State Examination and a Religious Interest Questionnaire, suggests that some of the black patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia might be more reasonably considered to have acute psychotic reactions or bouffées délirantes. The relative significance of culturally significant features as consitituting an entity or merely being pathoplastic is briefly discussed.