Comparison of Delusions among Schizophrenics in Austria and in Pakistan

One of the central purposes of cross-cultural psychiatry is to scrutinize the sociocultural influences on the phenomenology of psychiatric diseases. On the other hand it is possible to lay bare a nucleus of symptoms, common to all cultures, which, independently of all influences, occupies a central...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychopathology 1999-09, Vol.32 (5), p.225-234
Main Authors: Stompe, T., Friedman, A., Ortwein, G., Strobl, R., Chaudhry, H.R., Najam, N., Chaudhry, M.R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Austria
Biological and medical sciences
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Cultural Characteristics
Delusions - ethnology
Delusions - psychology
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Original Paper
Pakistan
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychoses
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - diagnosis
Schizophrenia - ethnology
Schizophrenic Psychology
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Summary:One of the central purposes of cross-cultural psychiatry is to scrutinize the sociocultural influences on the phenomenology of psychiatric diseases. On the other hand it is possible to lay bare a nucleus of symptoms, common to all cultures, which, independently of all influences, occupies a central position for an understanding of the disease considered. In this study an attempt was made to approach this problem by means of investigating the contents of delusion of schizophrenic patients in Austria and Pakistan. The contents of delusion among 126 Austrian and 108 Pakistani patients diagnosed as having schizophrenia according to DSM-III-R (art. 295) were compared following the classification of Huber and Gross. Additionally the kind of persecution and the type of the persecutor were registered. However it appeared that only a few contents of delusion are frequent in both countries. In both countries persecution was the most frequently mentioned content of delusion. The comparison of the contents of delusion revealed significantly higher frequencies of delusions of grandeur, guilt and religious delusions in Austrian patients. Significant differences could also be found with the kind of persecution and the persecutor’s type. Cultural factors seem to have a decisive influence on shaping the contents of delusion.
ISSN:0254-4962
1423-033X
DOI:10.1159/000029094