Cultural psychiatry and public health, mental health, and suicide prevention

• Forschungsstelle: TPH
• Projektnummer: 7.04
• Projekttitel Englisch: Cultural psychiatry and public health, mental health, and suicide prevention

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Cultural epidemiology, medical anthropology, community mental health; suicide and delibe-rate self-harm; stigma; Depression; chronic fatigue and weakness

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

A collection of cross-cultural studies in the field of mental health has developed complementary assessments of mental health problems that are applied in clinical services, community mental health programmes in urban Mumbai and rural West Bengal, and with particular interests in questions of suicide and nonfatal deliberate self-harm. Research interests also include development of new approaches and models for population mental health.

Projektziele (Englisch)

Objectives of these cultural mental health studies include:

1. Research for culturally sensitive clinical care

2. Community based studies to inform innovative mental health services and community programmes

3. Clinical management of suicidal behaviour and population interventions for suicide prevention

Abstract (Englisch)

A group of longstanding collaborative studies have been developing methods of cultural epidemiology, demonstrating the practical implications for practice and programmes. Studies include community health in the Sundarban Region of West Bengal, which has established community services and an integrated pesticide safety and suicide prevention programme. In Mumbai, an urban mental health programme is associated with community activities and mental health in a primary health centre. In Pune studies of cultural disorders of fatigue and weakness compare determinants of mental health seeking. In Bangalore clinical studies of depression and schizophrenia complement field studies of religious healing.

Publikationen / Ergebnisse (Englisch)

1. Weiss MG, (Ed.). Cultural Epidemiology. Special Issue of Anthropology and Medicine 8(1), 2001.
2. Weiss MG, Cohen A, Eisenberg L. Chapter 7: Mental Health. In: Merson M, Black B, Mills A (eds.), Introduction to International Health. Gaithersberg, MD: Aspen Publishers. 2001.
3. Weiss MG, Saraceno B, Saxena S, Van Ommeren M. Mental Health in the aftermath of disasters: consensus and controversy. J Nerv Ment Dis 2003; 191(9):611-615.
4. Parkar SR, Fernandes J, Weiss MG. Contextualizing mental health: gendered experiences in a Mumbai slum. Anthropology and Medicine. 2003; 10(3):291-308.
5. Raguram R, Venkateswaran A, Ramakrishna J, Weiss MG. Traditional Community Resources for Mental Health: A Report of Temple Healing from India. BMJ. 2002; 325:38-40.
6. Paralikar V, Agashe M, Weiss MG. Essentials of good practice: The making of a cultural psychiatrist in urban India. In: Ancis J. (Ed.), Culturally Relevant Interventions: Innovative Approaches to Working with Diverse Populations. New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2004
7. Weiss MG, Somma D. Explanatory models in psychiatry. Chapter in: Bhugra D, Bhui K. Textbook of Cultural Psychiatry. Cambridge University Press. In press.
8. Raguram R, Raghu TM, Vounatsou P, Weiss MG (2004) Schizophrenia and the cultural epidemiology of stigma in Bangalore, India. J Nerv Ment Dis 192:734-744.