Casullo M M
Acta Psiquiatr Psicol Am Lat. 1980 Dec;26(4):327-31.
This paper is an outline of a wide program that is currently under development in the large territory of Argentina. The Director of the Program is Dr. Fernando Pagés Larraya; it is supported by the National Council of Scientific Researches (CONICET) and the National Board of Mental Health. The general purpose of the program is to study the prevalence of mental disorders in different ethnographic areas within the country. Epidemiology allows the forecasting of disease occurence. A research work this area may be qualified "effective" if it provides useful data for prevention programs. Therefore, it is necessary that researches and professional responsibles of Mental Health Governmental decissions work together. This rapprochment is being attempted in developing the Argentine research program. It has a cross-cultural approach. It can be called "a way of thinking" as opposed to a precise methodology. A considerable variety of research tools are being used, depending on the specific purposes and the characteristics of the ethnographic areas. One of the main difficulties in choosing a technique for "case-finding" is uncertainty about where to place the "cut-off point" between presence and absence of illness. In this program the Present State Examination (PSE) is used in population surveys of large urban centers. It is a semi-structured interview that has been extensively tested. In small rural communities, the work is done using "key-informants" and applying the snow-ball sample technique. One specific purpose of the research is the study of the modal personality structure in each ethnographic area, formulated in terms of the Holtzman Inkblot Test. The paper shows the relationships between purposes, research tools and responsible professionals. There is hardly time or surplus intellectual energy for polemic and alienation between clinicians and social scientists. Theories, methodologies, research data and prevention programs have not developed harmoniously. We need to carry out research work not divorced from Public Health responsible authorities, in order to avoid that useful data from Epidemiological Studies will not be used in prevention programs.
本文是一个广泛项目的概述，该项目目前正在阿根廷广大地区开展。项目负责人是费尔南多·帕热斯·拉腊亚博士；它得到了国家科学研究委员会（CONICET）和国家心理健康委员会的支持。该项目的总体目标是研究该国不同人种志地区精神障碍的患病率。流行病学有助于预测疾病的发生。如果一项该领域的研究工作能为预防项目提供有用数据，那么它就可以被认为是“有效的”。因此，心理健康方面的研究人员和政府决策的专业负责人有必要共同合作。在制定阿根廷研究项目的过程中正在尝试这种合作。它采用跨文化方法。与其说它是一种精确的方法，不如说它是一种“思维方式”。根据具体目的和人种志地区的特点，正在使用相当多种类的研究工具。在选择“病例发现”技术时的一个主要困难是，难以确定疾病存在与不存在之间的“临界点”该定在哪里。在这个项目中，现状检查（PSE）被用于大城市中心的人口调查。这是一种经过广泛测试的半结构化访谈。在小型农村社区，工作是通过使用“关键 informant”并应用滚雪球抽样技术来完成的。该研究的一个具体目的是根据霍尔兹曼墨迹测验来研究每个人种志地区的典型人格结构。本文展示了目的、研究工具和负责的专业人员之间的关系。临床医生和社会科学家之间几乎没有时间或多余的智力精力进行争论和疏离。理论、方法、研究数据和预防项目并没有协调发展。我们需要开展与公共卫生负责当局不脱节的研究工作，以避免流行病学研究的有用数据不被用于预防项目。
