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Psychiatry in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

H. Shan
H. Shan*
Affiliation:
Shanghai XuHui Mental Health Center, No. 249, Lang Hua West Street, Shanghai 200232, People's Republic of China
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Abstract

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The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 181 , Issue 3 , September 2002 , pp. 257
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2002 

In response to Lyons (Reference Lyons2001) and Kumar (Reference Kumar2000), I have been working on the research of Qigong-related mental disorder and culture-bound syndrome in China for over a decade and I feel it is unfair for psychiatry in China to be represented by their remarks. I would argue that it is the misuse of Qigong, rather than misuse of psychiatry, that is at issue in China, according to my experience of research of Falun Gong-related mental disorder and culture-bound syndrome (Shan et al, Reference Shan, Yan and Xu1987, Reference Shan, Tao and Yu2000; Reference ShanShan, 1999). Some of the reports about the abuse of psychiatry in China are based on political issues and lack any awareness of academic research and study in China. In fact, Qigong was misused in China, and the patients and practitioners who suffered with Falun-Gong-related mental disorders need to be treated in psychiatry. I must call for more experts in psychiatry and in the World Psychiatric Association to pay attention to the research of Qigong- and Falun-Gong-related mental disorders.

References

Kumar, S. (2000) International concern grows over psychiatric abuses in China. Lancet, 356, 920.Google Scholar
Lyons, D. (2001) Soviet-style psychiatry is alive and well in the People's Republic (letter). British Journal of Psychiatry, 178, 380–381.Google Scholar
Shan, H. (1999) Clinical diagnoses and Qigong-induced mental disorder (in Chinese). Chinese Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 25, 180–189.Google Scholar
Shan, H., Yan, H. J., Xu, S. H., et al (1987) Astudy of the clinical phenomenology of mental disorders induced by Qigong (in Chinese). Chinese Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 13, 266–269.Google Scholar
Shan, H., Tao, M.Y. & Yu, Y. P. (2000) Falun Gong-related mental disorders (in Chinese). Journal of Clinical Psychological Medicine, 10, 345–347.Google Scholar
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