Suchergebnisse

AbstractPatterns of care for the chronically mentally ill are changing across the country. However, the obstacles to success still remain formidable. This chapter focuses on the questions "Who are these people?"︁ and "Where do we find them?"︁.

Starting out by tracing the brief history of psychiatric epidemiology, this text describes the study of risk factors as causes of mental disorders. Subsequent sections discuss approaches to investigation of biologic, genetic or social causes and the statistical analysis of study results.

Psychiatric epidemiology is one of the many paths to a career in cultural psychiatry. Psychiatric epidemiology has made numerous substantive contributions to cultural psychiatry. Areas in which psychiatric epidemiologists have contributed to cultural psychiatry include the undertaking of cross-national comparisons, studying the mental health of populations of importance to cultural psychiatry, studying risk factors that are of cultural importance such as immigration and social class, studying trauma, examining the role of stigma in cultural settings, and investigating cultural influences on mental health service delivery. This article highlights examples from the author's own research examining cross-national comparisons, trauma, and mental health service delivery. Research is vital to enable the field of cultural psychiatry to be a vibrant, evidence-based discipline within psychiatry.