S52.02 - Common mental disorders in sub-Saharan Africa - What lessons for the developed world

Abstract

This symposium will bring together leading mental health specialists from Europe and Africa. It will aim at describing patterns of common mental disorders on both continents and will also seek explanations for any observed differences. The objective of the symposium will be to bring out lessons that can be learnt from the two continents with the expectation that these lessons will not only bring about a better understanding of the mental disorders, but that opportunities for joint research projects between Europe and Africa will be explored, using existing research data from the two continents. The symposium will explore the fields of the psychosis and seek to bring out the current state of the debate on the prognosis of, for example, Schizophrenia in Africa versus Europe as the Africans present the latest findings from their continent. Conversion syndromes, Anorexia Nervosa, drug and substance abuse are all conditions that show patterns that are different in the two continents and pose new and challenging opportunities for collaborative research. Though present on both continents, PTSD and the challenge of HIV/AIDS is greater on the African continent partly due to social, economic and political factors that seem to fuel both. European psychiatrists might value opportunities to hear the state of these conditions in Africa and the way Africa is responding to the challenge.