Premium
Practical problems in psychiatric field surveys
Author(s) -
Davidian H.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1982.tb00897.x
Subject(s) - sociocultural evolution , epidemiology , mental health , personality , population , scope (computer science) , field (mathematics) , psychology , disease , psychiatry , value (mathematics) , medicine , social psychology , environmental health , sociology , computer science , pathology , mathematics , anthropology , pure mathematics , programming language , machine learning
The value of epidemiological studies in psychiatry, particularly field surveys, becomes increasingly evident, not only because they produce opportunities to study the associations between population characteristics and disease, but also for the assessment of the community needs for psychiatric facilities. The field survey in psychiatry is also that aspect of the epidemiological study which can provide valuable knowledge about human personality, in both health and disease. This knowledge can be obtained from data derived from demographic studies, community attitudes towards mental illness, and first‐hand impressions. The scope of these investigations is very wide, since the patient is being studied in relation to his surroundings and in a sociocultural setting, which includes numerous factors and variables. Although these factors very often represent a hindrance to the application of known methods and means of study, they could be overcome by taking into consideration the sociocultural condition of societies. The present paper gives a short description of problems which have been encountered in a number of field surveys in Iran. An examination of these problems may be of help when planning mental health surveys of cultural groups similar to those of Iran.