NYAPRS Note: Several years ago, the NYAPRS Annual Conference featured as a keynoter 'Mad in America' author Bob Whitaker who, as his book jacket indicated "revealed an astounding truth: Schizophrenics in the United States currently fare worse than patients in the world's poorest countries.." The following pieces seem to back up this premise.
Schizophrenia More Common in West
By Janelle Miles
Adelaide Advertiser
July 11, 2005
SCHIZOPHRENIA was much more common in the developed world, possibly because people with the mental illness in poorer countries were more likely to recover, an Australian expert said today.
In the most comprehensive survey of the prevalence of schizophrenia worldwide, John McGrath and colleagues from the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, reviewed data from 188 studies published between 1965 and 2002.
Their findings are expected to rewrite international textbooks on the devastating mental illness characterised by symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, disorganised communication, poor planning and reduced motivation.
Although previous research by Professor McGrath's team found the number of new cases emerging each year were similar in both western and developing nations, the latest survey finds the prevalence is "significantly lower" in poorer countries.
Although the reasons were still largely a mystery, Prof McGrath said people with the disorder in the developing world had a better prognosis.
"If you get schizophrenia in a place like India, for example, you tend to have a type of illness that recovers," Prof McGrath said.
"If you get schizophrenia in a place like New York or London, you tend to have an illness that's less likely to respond to treatment.
"It's extremely paradoxical. You'd think in the developed world like Australia, the UK, Canada and America we'd have better treatments so you'd be more likely to recover but that's not the case."
Prof McGrath said some scientists had speculated the social connectedness in village life among people living in poorer countries might cushion those with schizophrenia from some of the disability, helping them to recover.
But he said his colleagues in countries such as India and Africa had dismissed such theories as a "romantic notion".
"In many developing, poorer countries people with serious mental illness are stigmatised just like they are in our own country," Prof McGrath said.
His own belief is that schizophrenia is a group of many illnesses and those in poorer parts of the world may experience less serious forms of the disorder, making them more likely to recover.
The survey, published recently in the American-based journal, Public Library of Science Medicine, also confirms schizophrenia is more common in migrants than in native-born people.
Again, the reasons are unclear but migrants with darker skin tend to have an increased risk of schizophrenia, suggesting lack of vitamin D may play a part.
"It could be stress-related to racism, it could be vitamin D, it could be something we don't know about," Prof McGrath said.
While textbooks worldwide commonly report schizophrenia affects one in 100 people no matter where people live, the survey finds this is over-stated.
Prof McGrath said rates varied worldwide and the overall prevalence was more likely to be between seven and eight in 1000 people.
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Globalisation is Harming Children's Mental Health
Globalisation is affecting children's mental health by imposing Western child rearing beliefs and psychiatric practice around the world, argues a child psychiatrist in this week's BMJ.
(I-Newswire) - Western culture promotes individualism, competitiveness, and weakens social ties. In contrast, many non-Western cultures encourage values such as duty and responsibility within a close family structure.
While rates of psychological problems, such as crime, anxiety, and unhappiness, have increased sharply among young people in Western societies, the communal ethic of non-Western cultures seems to promote psychiatric wellbeing, says the author.
Exporting these Western ideas to developing countries is not only undermining local ways of solving children's problems, but is masking the real life circumstances ( such as poverty and exploitation ) those children may face.
Yet child psychiatrists in the West could gain new knowledge from examining childcare practices across the world, he says.
"We must critically re-examine the narrow basis on which current theory and practice has developed. This will help not only other culture's children but also children in the West," he writes.
"Increased knowledge will also make it easier to engage with multi-ethnic communities that have different faith traditions and cultural beliefs from the host society."
( Effect of globalization on children's mental health )
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