Detecting psychotic symptoms in Indigenous populations: a review of available assessment tools.
As efforts to shorten the duration of untreated psychosis increase, there is a need for short screening instruments to identify those at-risk. It is feared that remote Indigenous populations, manifesting many of the risk factors associated with schizophrenia and often lacking access to adequate mental health services, may be overlooked as the general population effort shifts towards early detection. This article aimed to review studies investigating psychotic symptoms in Indigenous communities in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and United States of America and aimed to evaluate the usefulness of the instruments. Eleven relevant studies were identified using seven unique instruments. The available instruments assessed psychotic symptoms to varying degrees, although no screener for early detection was found thus supporting concerns that these disadvantaged populations do not have access to suitable support enabling early detection of psychosis. We recommend that a rapid screening tool for detecting at-risk individuals be developed and validated for community use in Indigenous populations living in remote areas.
School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
Célia
C
Demarchi
India
I
Bohanna
Bernhard T
BT
Baune
Alan R
AR
Clough
D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044382:Population Groups; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*