Refugees who do and do not seek psychiatric care: An analysis of premigratory and postmigratory characteristics
Author(s):
Westermeyer, Joseph; Vang, Tou F.; Neider, John
Format:
Journal article
Citation:
Journal Of Nervous And Mental Disease, Volume 171, Issue 2 (1983-02). pp. 86-91.
Language:
English
Abstract:
Social psychiatric research can provide information about the role of interpersonal and societal factors in the genesis of psychiatric disorder. This discipline relies heavily on "experiments in nature" that expose a large number of people to a potentially pathological social stimulus. It also depends on the study of nonpatients to serve as a comparative group for patients. Both conditions are met in the present study of Hmong refugees from Indochina. While the population and the event are esoteric, their experiences of sudden sociocultural change, geographic migration, role discontinuity, identity crisis, and massive loss are common experiences among many psychiatric patients, regardless of their origin. The present prospective study of refugees to the US was undertaken among the Hmong population in Minnesota ( N?=?97; the majority aged 20–59 yrs) during 1977. Subsequently, 17 of this group became psychiatric patients over a 12-mo period. Pre- and postmigration factors associated with patient status are described, and hypotheses are offered regarding those postmigration experiences or social strategies that favored or prevented psychiatric status. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)