The United States will no longer have a Caucasian majority in the second half of the 21st century. Evidence shows that misdiagnosis of mental disorders occurs more frequently in minority populations. Thus, the domestic and international utility of DSM-IV and its companions will depend on their suitability for use with various cultures. A key feature of this volume is the collaboration of cultural experts, members of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH ) Culture and Diagnosis Group, nosologists, and members of the DSM-IV Task Force and Work Groups. The NIMH and the American Psychiatric Association held a conference on Culture and Psychiatric Diagnosis to prepare for DSM-IV. Culture and Psychiatric Diagnosis developed from that meeting to enhance the cultural validity of DSM-IV. If clinicians are to become culturally sensitive, they must understand the criteria that define a disorder and consider the cultural context of the person being examined. They can then ascertain whether the criteria are applicable in the present cultural context of the patient. Culture and Psychiatric Diagnosis will benefit all clinicians treating minority patients because it documents and clarifies how cultural factors influence psychopathology; the manifestations, assessment, and course of mental disorders, and the response to treatment.

Cultural Psychiatry with emphasis on its impact on etio-pathogenesis, diagnosis, clinical practice, preventive and research activities are topics discussed in this publication which give readers a general conceptual perspective of this field. Cultural aspects of psychiatric diagnosis in DSM-5 in particular and the current status of Cultural Psychiatry in European countries are discussed. Of unique importance to the field of psychosomatics are the reviews on so-called culture-bound syndromes and somatization and culture. Ethnopsychopharmacology, pharmacogenomics, current and future research perspectives in Cultural Psychiatry and bioethical dimensions of cultural psychosomatics are also reviewed. The volume closes with an epilogue and conclusions resulting from the examined topics.Psychiatrists, psychologists, social scientists and other mental health professionals involved in clinical practice and research groups as well as trainees and students will find that this publication provides a cogent perspective of current practice and research issues about a field that has enormous clinical relevance and which, until recently, has been systematically neglected.

The publication of the Cultural Formulation Outline in the DSM-IV represented a significant event in the history of standard diagnostic systems. It was the first systematic attempt at placing cultural and contextual factors as an integral component of the diagnostic process. The year was 1994 and its coming was ripe since the multicultural explosion due to migration, refugees, and globalization on the ethnic composition of the U.S. population made it compelling to strive for culturally attuned psychiatric care. Understanding the limitations of a dry symptomatological approach in helping clinicians grasp the intricacies of the experience, presentation, and course of mental illness, the NIMH Group on Culture and Diagnosis proposed to appraise, in close collaboration with the patient, the cultural framework of the patient's identity, illness experience, contextual factors, and clinician-patient relationship, and to narrate this along the lines of five major domains. By articulating the patient's experience and the standard symptomatological description of a case, the clinician may be better able to arrive at a more useful understanding of the case for clinical care purposes. Furthermore, attending to the context of the illness and the person of the patient may additionally enhance understanding of the case and enrich the database from which effective treatment can be planned. This reader is a rich collection of chapters relevant to the DSM-IV Cultural Formulation that covers the Cultural Formulation's historical and conceptual background, development, and characteristics. In addition, the reader discusses the prospects of the Cultural Formulation and provides clinical case illustrations of its utility in diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. Book jacket.

Within the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in the study of culture and mental health relationships. This interest has extended across many academic and professional disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, public health and social work, and has resulted in many books and scientific papers emphasizing the role of sociocultural factors in the etiology, epidemiology, manifestation and treatment of mental disorders. It is now evident that sociocultural variables are inextricably linked to all aspects of both normal and abnormal human behavior. But, in spite of the massive accumulation of data regarding culture and mental health relationships, sociocultural factors have still not been incorporated into existing biological and psychological perspectives on mental disorder and therapy. Psychiatry, the Western medical specialty concerned with mental disorders, has for the most part continued to ignore socio-cultural factors in its theoretical and applied approaches to the problem. The major reason for this is psychiatry's continued commitment to a disease conception of mental disorder which assumes that mental disorders are largely biologically-caused illnesses which are universally represented in etiology and manifestation. Within this perspective, mental disorders are regarded as caused by universal processes which lead to discrete and recognizable symptoms regardless of the culture in which they occur. However, this perspective is now the subject of growing criticism and debate.

Culture and Mental Health: a comprehensive textbook is an authoritative text bringing together experts from around the world to discuss the provision of mental health services within multi-cultural societies and what this means in clincal and practical terms.The book looks in detail at the clinical state of services for multi-cultural societies acr

From specialists in several disciplines—psychiatry, general medicine, anthropology, sociology, and social work—the editors of this volume have assembled reports on a search for ways of identifying mentally ill people in other cultures and of determining what kinds of sociocultural factors influence the origin, course, and outcome of psychiatric disorders. The contributors have approached the subject through reviews of the literature, seminar discussions, and exploratory field studies carried out in Nova Scotia and among Eskimos, Navahos, and Mexicans. The book provides a methodological approach to important issues and problems in an area in which there is as yet only limited and uncertain knowledge. It will be useful to psychiatrists and epidemiologists working outside their own cultures, to psychologists and anthropologists, and as a handbook for specialists in mental health.

Culture permeates human activity the world over. In today's technological "global village," people from very different cultures are interacting more closely and more often than ever -- making it critical for clinicians to understand and incorporate cultural dimensions into their daily practices. This volume offers a contemporary pragmatic understanding of how culture is inextricably intertwined with mental health and mental illness. In Chapter 1, the 17-member GAP Committee on Cultural Psychiatry begins by discussing the history (particularly within the last two decades) and scope of culture in clinical psychiatry. In Chapter 2, the authors describe 11 selected cultural variables that strongly influence clinical work: ethnic identity, race, gender and sexual orientations, age, religion, migration and country of origin, socioeconomic status, acculturation and acculturative processes, language, dietary influences, and education. In Chapter 3, the authors present a brief history and detailed analysis of the Cultural Formulation, the newest instrument for ensuring thorough clinical assessments, explaining its clinical use based on DSM-IV guidelines. In Chapter 4, the authors integrate the 11 cultural variables described in Chapter 2 with the use of the Cultural Formulation described in Chapter 3, producing an extraordinary cross-section of case vignettes: How the son of Irish Catholic immigrants struggles to reconcile old-country traditions with life in modern American society The sometimes painful and always complex process and outcomes of acculturation for a Pakistani Muslim family who had come to the United States for only a temporary period but ended up staying permanently Diagnosing social phobia in an Asian American, whose traditional reticence must be viewed within the context of Asian culture Loss of country of origin and family ties as catalysts leading to significant behavioral changes and severe depressive symptoms in an African immigrant tribesman from Kenya and the cultural context of his recovery The interplay of gender, age, and religion with developmental issues, personality organization, and symptom development for a "good Catholic girl" The existential, interpersonal, and clinical experiences of a Protestant minister from predominantly Catholic Ecuador, who came to the United States as pastor of an Hispanic church in a predominantly white city In Chapter 5, the authors conclude with a summary and suggestions regarding the complex issues raised by a thorough cultural assessment. Enhanced by a detailed index, this powerful work meets the significant -- and rapidly growing -- need for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to understand the role of culture in psychiatry and to integrate this knowledge into their practice so that they can provide the most comprehensive and useful care to their patients.

Cultural psychiatry has been the portal through which advances in the social sciences have found their way into medical practice and health policy. Diverse issues and activities in research and practice of cultural and transcultural psychiatry are collected in this timely volume. The contributions can be summarized in three main topics: interdisciplinary settings for practice and research; migration, trauma and the context of migrant mental health, and cultural lessons for treatment. This book provides essential reading for health professionals and social scientists who would like to understand how culture influences mental health as well as the treatment and prevention of mental illness. It will be of special interest to medical anthropologists concerned with the relationship between culture theory and psychiatry, mental health care providers and policy makers in an international environment.