Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:58:12.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Chronicity of Schizophrenia in Indigenous Tropical Peoples

Results of a Twelve-Year Follow-up Survey in Mauritius

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

H. B. M. Murphy  and
A. C. Raman
H. B. M. Murphy
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, 1266 Pine Avenue West, Montreal 109, P.Q., Canada
A. C. Raman
Affiliation:
Brown Séquard Hospital, Beau Bassin, Mauritius
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Although the belief that primitive man might be free from schizophrenia has joined the rest of the golden age myths, there is still a serious question respecting the severity or chronicity of the disease in many tropical peoples. In such peoples typical cases of schizophrenia are proportionately uncommon, and in their place one often meets an acute short-lasting psychosis, which may be indistinguishable from classical schizophrenia in its initial stages but which runs a much shorter course and carries a better prognosis.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 118 , Issue 546 , May 1971 , pp. 489 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971 

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.)

References

Bleuler, M. (1962). ‘Schizophrenieartige Psychosen und Actiologic der Schizophrenic’ Schweiz. med. Wschr., 92, 87.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. et al. (1966). Schizophrenia and Social Care. London.Google Scholar
Carothers, J. G. (1953). The African Mind in Health and Di sease. A Study in Ethnopsychiatry. Geneva.Google Scholar
Gollomb, H. (1957). ‘Introduction à la psychiatric tropicale.’ Médecine Tropicale, 17, 542.Google Scholar
Davis, R. B. (1949). ‘A study of war psychoses in troops of the Indian army.’ Indian J. Neurol. Psychiat., 1, 160.Google Scholar
Dembovitz, N. (1945). ‘Psychiatry amongst West African troops.’ Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 84, 70.Google Scholar
Dohan, F. C. (1966). ‘Wheat “consumption” and hospital admissions for schizophrenia during World War II.’ Amer. J. clin. Nutrition, 18, 7.Google Scholar
Emanuel, E. (1947). ‘Transient abnormal behaviour among Indian troops.’ J. Indian Army Medical Corps, 3, 76.Google Scholar
Harris, A., Norrs, V., Linker, I., and Shepherd, M. (1956). ‘Schizophrenia: a prognostic and social study.’ Brit. J. prev. soc. Med., 10, 107.Google Scholar
Henisz, J. (1966). ‘A follow-up study of schizophrenic patients.’ Comprehensive Psychiatry, 7, 524.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M., and Lemieux, M. (1967). ‘Quelques considérations sur le taux élevé de schizophrénie dans un type de communauté canadienne-firançaise.’ Canad. psychiat. Ass. J., 12, S72.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. and Sampath, H. M. (1967). ‘Mental health in a Caribbean community. A mental health survey of Saint Thomas, V.I.’ Unpublished.Google Scholar
Rainaut, J. (1958). ‘Un aspect des psychoses transitoires en milieu africain: la bouffée aiguë confusionelle et anxieuse.’ In: Mental Disorders and Mental Health in Africa South of the Sahara. CCTA/CSA-WFMH-WHO meeting of specialists on mental health, Bukavu. London.Google Scholar
Registrar General's Statistical Review of England and Wales for the two years 1952–1953. Supplement on Mental Health (1958). London.Google Scholar
Registrar General's Statistical Review of England and Wales for the year 1959. Supplement on Mental Health (1962). London.Google Scholar
Schaltenbrand, P. (1931). ‘Psychiatrie in Peking.’ Z. ges. Neur. Psychiat., 137, 168.Google Scholar
Shelley, H. M., and Watson, W. H. (1936). ‘An investigation concerning mental disorder in the Nyasaland natives.’ J. ment. Sci., 82, 701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherman, L. J. (1964). ‘Prognosis in schizophrenia: a follow-up study of 588 patients.’ Arch. gen. Psychiat., 10, 123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skliar, N., and Starikowa, K. (1929). ‘Zur vergleichenden Psychiatrie.’ Arch. Psychiat. Nervenkr., 88, 554.Google Scholar
Stainbrook, E. (1952). ‘Some characteristics of the psychopathology of schizophrenic behaviour in Bahian society.’ Amer. J. Psychiat., 109, 330.Google Scholar
Tewfik, G. I. (1958). ‘Psychoses in Africa.’ In: Mental Disorders and Mental Health in Africa South of the Sahara. CCTA/CSA-WFMH-WHO meeting of specialists on mental health, Bukavu. London.Google Scholar
Tooth, G. (1950). Studies in Mental Illness in the Gold Coast, London.Google Scholar
van Loon, F. H. (1920). The problem of lunacy in Acheen.’ Mededeel. Dienst Volksgez. N.I., 10, 2.Google Scholar
Vyncke, J. (1957). Psychoses et Néuroses en Afrique Centrale. Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Williams, H. (1950). ‘A psychiatric study of Indian soldiers in the Arakan.’ Brit. J. med. Psychol., 23, 130.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.