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The Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue (EMIC)

Contribution to Cross-cultural Research Methods from a Study of Leprosy and Mental Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Mitchell G. Weiss ,
D. R. Doongaji ,
S. Siddhartha ,
David Wypij ,
S. Pathare ,
M. Bhatawdekar ,
A. Bhave ,
A. Sheth  and
R. Fernandes
Mitchell G. Weiss*
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts and Department of Psychiatry, The Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
D. R. Doongaji
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, KEM Hospital, Bombay, India
S. Siddhartha
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, KEM Hospital, Bombay
David Wypij
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
S. Pathare
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, KEM Hospital, Bombay
M. Bhatawdekar
Affiliation:
Bombay
A. Bhave
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Nair Hospital, Bombay
A. Sheth
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, KEM Hospital, Bombay
R. Fernandes
Affiliation:
Department of Dermatology, KEM Hospital, Bombay
*
∗Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, 641 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
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Abstract

The Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue (EMIC) has been developed to elicit illness-related perceptions, beliefs, and practices in a cultural study of leprosy and mental health in Bombay. Leprosy is an especially appropriate disorder for studying the inter-relationship of culture, mental health and medical illness because of deeply rooted cultural meanings, the emotional burden, and underuse of effective therapy. Fifty per cent of 56 recently diagnosed leprosy out-patients, 37% of 19 controls with another stigmatised dermatological condition (vitiligo), but only 8% of 12 controls with a comparable non-stigmatised condition (tinea versicolor) met DSM–III–R criteria for an axis I depressive, anxiety or somatoform disorder. Belief in a humoral (traditional) cause of illness predicted better attendance at clinic.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 160 , Issue 6 , June 1992 , pp. 819 - 830
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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