[Finding a meaning for illness: from medical anthropology to cultural epidemiology].
Every illness raises questions concerning its causes and even more its meaning. Why me? Why him? Why now? These questions call for an interpretation which goes beyond a simple application to the individual body and the medical diagnosis. This search for meaning is by no means an archaic attitude and does not only concern the cryptic fields of medicine as several studies in medical anthropology and transcultural psychiatry have shown. A review of literature in anthropology points out the basic concepts of "health care system", "explanatory models", "etiological theories", and "causality of illness". The contribution of these studies to epidemiology and public health of infectious and tropical diseases is discussed through the development of so called cultural epidemiology based on the methodology of the Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue.
Taïeb
O
O
Service de psychopathologie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent et psychiatrie générale (Pr M.R. Moro), hôpital Avicenne (AP-HP), université Paris-XIII, 125, rue de Stalingrad, 93000 Bobigny, France. olivier.taieb@avc.ap-hop-paris.fr
Heidenreich
F
F
Baubet
T
T
Moro
M R
MR
D000884:Anthropology, Cultural / Q000379:methods*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological