Cross-cultural perspective on paranoia: a focus on the black American experience.
A cross-cultural perspective on paranoia is developed, based on a synthesis of three distinct areas of research, with particular attention to the Black experience in America. This perspective is applied in a two-phase program of research. Phase I was the secondary analysis of data from an epidemiologic study of schizophrenia and depression: It examined differences in paranoid symptom expression among Black, Latino, and White Americans. Phase II, called the Culturally-Sensitive Diagnostic Interview Research Project, is currently underway and involves primary data collection, focusing exclusively on African Americans. Phase I results and some pilot data from the phase II study are reported. It is concluded that cultural mistrust among Black psychiatric patients should not be construed as psychopathology.
Whaley
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Department of Social Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York 10032, USA.
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology