Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:54:51.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What is an Afro-Caribbean? Implications for psychiatric research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

G. Hutchinson
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital, London SE5 8AZ
K. McKenzie*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry and King's College Medical School, Maudsley Hospital
*
Brixton Community Care Project, 103 Denmark Hill, Maudsley Hospital, London SE5 8AZ
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The term Afro-Caribbean is used to describe black people of Caribbean origin in Britain. Migrants from the Caribbean, their children and their children's children are all covered by this term. The group as a whole is reported to have a higher incidence rate of schizophrenia than white groups, (King et al 1994), and British-born children of Caribbean parents have an even higher rate (Harrison et al, 1988). These reports have led to the hypothesis that Afro-Caribbeans may have a special vulnerability to schizophrenia. While limitations to these studies have been identified, (Wessly et al 1991) none has sought to question the use of the term Afro-Caribbean as a valid and reliable ethnic grouping. If we are to be able to produce good hypotheses for the aetiology of the reported increases in incidence, or to produce research which is useful to Black and ethnic minority groups, we need a clear understanding of the people under study.

Type
Briefings
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1995

References

Beaubrun, M. H. (1992) Caribbean psychiatry. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, History of Psychiatry, iii. 371383.Google Scholar
Bhopal, R. S., Phillimore, P. & Kohli, H. S. (1991) Inappropriate use of the term Asian. An obstacle to ethnicity and health research. Journal of Public Health Medicine, 13, 244246.Google Scholar
Francis, E., David, J., Johnson, N., et al (1989) Black people and psychiatry in the UK. Psychiatric Bulletin, 13, 482485.Google Scholar
Harrison, G., Owens, D. & Holton, A. (1988) A prospective study of severe mental disorder in Afro-Caribbean patients. Psychological Medicine, 18, 643657.Google Scholar
Jones, (1981) How different are the human races? Nature, 293, 188190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
King, M., Coker, E., Leavey, G., et al (1994) Incidence of psychotic illness in London: comparison of ethnic groups. British Medical Journal 309, 115119.Google Scholar
Lewis, G., Croft-Jeffreys, C. & David, A. (1990) Are British psychiatrists racists? British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 410415.Google Scholar
McKenzie, K. J. & Crowcroft, N. (1994) Race, culture and ethnicity. British Medical Journal 309, 286287.Google Scholar
Senior, P. A. & Bhopal, R. (1994) Ethnicity as a variable in epidemiological research. British Medical Journal 300.Google Scholar
Sheldon, T. A. & Parker, H. (1992) Race and ethnicity in health research. Journal of Public Health Medicine, 14, 104110.Google Scholar
Wessley, S., Castle, D., Der, G., et al (1991) Schizophrenia and Afro-Caribbeans. A case control study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 795801.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.