Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T04:24:11.896Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Insight, psychosis and ethnicity: a case-note study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Sonia Johnson  and
Martin Orrell
Sonia Johnson*
Affiliation:
Maudsley Continuing Care Study, Institute of Psychiatry and Department of Psychiatry, University College London Medical School, London
Martin Orrell
Affiliation:
Maudsley Continuing Care Study, Institute of Psychiatry and Department of Psychiatry, University College London Medical School, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Sonia Johnson Maudsley Continuing Care StudyInstitute of PsychiatryDe Crespigny ParkLondon SE5 8AF.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Recent literature on insight has paid little attention to patients' social backgrounds and cultures. Discharge summaries from 357 patients with a psychotic illness were examined to investigate factors associated with insight. A highly significant association was found between British white ethnic origin and being thought by the admitting psychiatrist to have some insight. Possible explanations include: different ways of understanding mental illness in different cultures, greater stigma leading to greater denial of illness in some cultures, greater illness severity at admission in some ethnic groups and racial bias in psychiatrists' ratings.

Type
Brief Communication
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 26 , Issue 5 , September 1996 , pp. 1081 - 1084
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amador, X. F., Strauss, D. H., Yale, S. A. & Gorman, J. M. (1991). Awareness of illness in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 17, 113–130.Google Scholar
David, A. (1990). Insight and psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry 156, 798–808.Google Scholar
David, A., Buchanan, A., Reed, A. & Almeida, O. (1992). The assessment of insight in psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry 161, 599–602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, S. & Orrell, M. (1995). Insight and psychosis: a social perspective. Psychological Medicine 25, 515–520.Google Scholar
Lewis, G., Croft-Jeffreys, C. & David, A. (1990). Are British psychiatrists racist? British Journal of Psychiatry 157, 410–415.Google Scholar
Markova, I. S. & Berrios, G. E. (1992). The meaning of insight in clinical psychiatry. British Journal of Psychiatry 160, 850–860.Google Scholar