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The Chronicity of Schizophrenia in Indigenous Tropical Peoples

Results of a Twelve-Year Follow-up Survey in Mauritius

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

H. B. M. Murphy  and
A. C. Raman
H. B. M. Murphy
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, 1266 Pine Avenue West, Montreal 109, P.Q., Canada
A. C. Raman
Affiliation:
Brown Séquard Hospital, Beau Bassin, Mauritius
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Extract

Although the belief that primitive man might be free from schizophrenia has joined the rest of the golden age myths, there is still a serious question respecting the severity or chronicity of the disease in many tropical peoples. In such peoples typical cases of schizophrenia are proportionately uncommon, and in their place one often meets an acute short-lasting psychosis, which may be indistinguishable from classical schizophrenia in its initial stages but which runs a much shorter course and carries a better prognosis.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 118 , Issue 546 , May 1971 , pp. 489 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971 

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