Patel V
Section of Epidemiology and General Practice, Institute of Psychiatry, London, England.
Soc Sci Med. 1995 May;40(9):1291-8. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(94)00231-h.
Knowledge of explanatory models of illness can be used to conduct cross-cultural epidemiological studies which, while being culturally sensitive, are also comparable with other studies. This paper reviews studies from sub-Saharan Africa which examine beliefs relating to mental illness. There is a rich diversity of beliefs, but within this diversity are a number of shared concepts. Thus, many African cultures do distinguish between the mind and body. The mind is cited as residing in the head as well as the heart or abdominal region. Spiritual causes are frequent explanations for mental illness. Though there are some similarities with biomedical concepts of mental illness, there are also significant variations. Psychotic illness is often recognized as 'madness' though emphasis is on behavioural symptoms rather than delusions; neurotic presentations are much more varied, often somatically defined and may not be considered to be mental illnesses at all. Emic psychiatric instruments need to be developed if future cross-cultural psychiatric research is to be both comparable and culturally valid.
对疾病解释模型的了解可用于开展跨文化流行病学研究，这类研究既对文化敏感，又能与其他研究进行比较。本文回顾了撒哈拉以南非洲地区有关精神疾病相关信念的研究。这些信念丰富多样，但在这种多样性中存在一些共同概念。因此，许多非洲文化确实区分了身心。人们认为心灵既存在于头部，也存在于心脏或腹部区域。精神病因常常被用来解释精神疾病。虽然与精神疾病的生物医学概念有一些相似之处，但也存在显著差异。精神病性疾病通常被认为是“疯狂”，不过重点在于行为症状而非妄想；神经症表现则更为多样，常常从躯体角度定义，甚至可能根本不被视为精神疾病。如果未来的跨文化精神病学研究要具有可比性且在文化上有效，就需要开发本土精神病学工具。
