Hostname: page-component-669899f699-qzcqf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-02T01:47:04.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Severe mental disorder in Afro-Caribbean patients: some social, demographic and service factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Glynn Harrison ,
Anthony Holton ,
David Neilson ,
David Owens ,
Daphne Boot  and
John Cooper
Glynn Harrison*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham
Anthony Holton
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham
David Neilson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham
David Owens
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham
Daphne Boot
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham
John Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Glynn Harrison, Academic Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham NG7 2UH.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Forty-two consecutively identified Afro-Caribbean patients with a first episode of psychosis were compared with a similar group of non-Caribbean patients. A number of differences emerged, although the same proportion of patients in each group had symptoms for 6 months or more prior to psychiatric contact. Afro-Caribbean patients showed greater delay in seeking help, more ‘disturbance’ later in the course of their illness and were more likely to be admitted compulsorily. The social geography of the two groups suggests that the high rates of schizophrenia and related psychoses that we previously reported cannot be explained simply by differences in area of residence at the time of presentation.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , August 1989 , pp. 683 - 696
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Andreasson, S., Allebeck, P., Engstrom, A & Rydberg, U. (1987). Cannabis and schizophrenia: a longitudinal study of Swedish conscripts. Lancet ii, 1483–1486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asai, K. (1984). Pathways of help-seeking of psychiatric patients in Japan: a research study in Togane City. American Journal of Social Psychiatry IV, 38–43.Google Scholar
Breakey, W. R., Goodell, H., Lorenz, P. C. & McHugh, P. R. (1974). Hallucinogenic drugs as precipitants of schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine 4, 255–261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burke, A. W (1974) First admissions and planning in Jamaica. Social Psychiatry 9, 39–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carney, M. W. P., Bacelle, L. & Robinson, B. (1984). Psychosis after cannabis abuse. British Medical Journal 288, 1047.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carney, P. & Lipsedge, M. (1984). Psychosis after cannabis abuse. British Medical Journal 288, 1381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carpenter, L. & Brockington, I. F. (1980). A study of mental illness in Asians, West Indians and Africans living in Manchester. British Journal of Psychiatry 137, 201–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooper, J. E., Goodhead, D., Craig, T., Harris, M., Howat, J. & Korer, J. (1987). The incidence of schizophrenia in Nottingham. British Journal of Psychiatry 151, 619–626.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooper, R. (1986). Race disease and health. In Health, Race and Ethnicity (ed. Rathwell, J. and Phillips, D.), pp. 21–79. Croom Helm: London.Google Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. P. (1969). Social status and psychological disorder. In Urban Challenges of Psychiatry (ed. Kolb, L. C.Bernard, V. W. and Dohrenwend, B. P.), pp. 375–410. Little, Brown: Boston USA.Google Scholar
Faris, R. E. L. & Dunham, H. W. (1939). Mental Disorders in Urban Areas – An Ecological Study of Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, Ill.Google Scholar
Giggs, J. A. & Cooper, J. E. (1987). Ecological structure and the distribution of schizophrenia and affective psychoses in Nottingham. British Journal of Psychiatry. 151, 627–633.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gordon, E. B. (1965). Mentally ill West Indian immigrants. British Journal of Psychiatry 111, 877–887.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Granville-Grossman, K. L. (1979). Psychiatric aspects of cannabis use. In Recent Advances in Clinical Psychiatry 3, pp. 251–270. Churchill Livingstone: Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Harrison, G., Ineichen, B., Smith, J. & Morgan, H. G. (1984). Psychiatric hospital admissions in Bristol. II. Social and clinical aspects of compulsory admission. British Journal of Psychiatry 145, 605–611.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrison, G., Owens, D., Holton, T., Neilson, D. & Boot, D. (1988). A prospective study of severe mental disorder in Afro-Caribbean patients. Psychological Medicine 18, 643–657.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herzog, E. & Lewis, H. (1970). Children in poor families. American Journal of Onhopsychiatry 40, 375–387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hollingshead, A. B. & Redlich, F. C. (1958). Social Class and Mental Illness. Wiley: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ineichen, B., Harrison, G. & Morgan, H. G. (1984). Psychiatric hospital admissions in Bristol. I. Geographical and ethnic factors British Journal of Psychiatry 145, 600–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, E. C., Crow, T. J., Johnson, A. L. & MacMillan, J. F. (1986). The Northwick Park study of first episodes of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 148, 115–120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lin, T.-Y., Tardiff, K., Donetz, G. & Goresky, W. (1978). Ethnicity and patterns of help-seeking. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 2, 3–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Littlewood, R. (1986). Ethnic minorities and the Mental Health Act: patterns of explanation. Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 10, 306–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Litllewood, R. & Lipsedge, M. (1981). Acute psychotic reactions in Caribbean-born patients. Psychological Medicine 11, 303–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGovern, D. & Cope, R. V. (1987). The compulsory detention of males of different ethnic groups with special reference to offender patients. British Journal of Psychiatry 150, 502–512.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1986). The Labour Force Survey 1983 and 1984. Series LFS No. 4. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Rwegellera, G. G. C. (1977). Psychiatric morbidity among West Africans and West Indians living in London. Psychological Medicine 7, 317–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sartorius, N., Jablensky, A., Korten, A., Ernberg, G., Anker, M., Cooper, J. E. & Day, R. (1986). Early manifestations and first contact incidence of schizophrenia in different cultures. Psychological Medicine 16, 909–928.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Treffert, D. A. (1978). Marijuana use in schizophrenia: a clear hazard. American Journal of Psychiatry 135, 1213–1215.Google ScholarPubMed
Williams, M. (1986). ‘The Thatcher generation’. New Society 21 02, 312–315.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974). Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar