Migration, ethnicity and psychosis

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511544064.010

10 - Migration, ethnicity and psychosis

from Part II - Social factors and the onset of psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009

Paul Fearon and

Edited by

Kwame McKenzie and

Kwame McKenzie: Affiliation:
Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, University of Toronto, 455 Spadina Av. Toronto, Canada
Paul Fearon: Affiliation:
Section of Epidemiology and Social Psychiatry, Department of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry, Box 63, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, UK
Gerard Hutchinson: Affiliation:
Psychiatry Unit Department of Clinical Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Mount Hope, Champs Fleurs, Trinidad
Craig Morgan: Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London
Kwame McKenzie: Affiliation:
University College London
Paul Fearon: Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin

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Summary

Introduction

In the 1930s, Ödegaard (1932) reported that first-admission rates for schizophrenia were high among Norwegian migrants to the United States. Since then numerous studies in a variety of countries have investigated rates of serious mental illness in migrant groups and in different cultural and ethnic groups within countries (Cantor-Graae and Selten, 2005). In this chapter, we review the literature reporting differences in the incidence of psychosis between migrant and ethnic groups, we discuss methodological issues and, using the best-researched group, people of African and Caribbean origin in the UK, we try to build a model of how migration, culture and ethnicity affect rates of incident psychosis.

History and overview

Since high rates of mental illness among Norwegian migrants to the United States were reported in the first half of the last century (Ödegaard, 1932) there have been a number of studies investigating the incidence of psychosis in migrant and ethnic minority groups. Although the vast majority of migration is between developing countries within Africa and Asia, there is surprisingly little research on the risk of psychosis in these groups. Research into the incidence of psychosis in migrant groups is best developed in northern Europe. The most comprehensive literature on the subject concerns the high incidence of schizophrenia in people of African and Caribbean origin who migrated to the UK, mainly in the 1940s and 1950s, and in their children and grandchildren, a finding which has been consistently reported for 30 years.

Keywords

ethnicity host culture migration psychosis sociodevelopmental model

Type: Chapter
Information: Society and Psychosis , pp. 143 - 160

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544064.010 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2008

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10 - Migration, ethnicity and psychosis

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