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| | Developments after 1990 | | 2005-2-22 0:44:11 ShanghaiTongji University,Medical School Pr.Zhao Xudong |  Developments after 1990
In 1990s, the Chinese psychiatrists became more interested in culturally-related issues. The scope of study became wider. New methodology was introduced and developed.
The main interests were still focused on the minority nationalities, but the reflection on the Han nationality itself was also stressed, for the findings of the previous researches have offered many implications for the improvement of mental health of the main nationality.
Some projects have been carried out internationally, reflecting the increasing exchanges of Chinese with the world.
One of the obvious signs for the intense cultural consciousness of the Chinese colleagues was that they published a lot of articles about the relation between witchcraft, "superstition", Qigong and mental disorders.
Such issues had been taboos before, and professionals had been trying to avoid topics of belief, religion or ideology.
Qigong began to boom in the 1980s. Some "great masters" unfolded a vigorous mass campaign for Qigong which appeared to be both beneficial and harmful for health. Many psychiatrists were aware of its side-effects on mental health, i.e., they have seen a lot of patients whose symptoms had close relation to fanatic Qigong exercises, but they didnt want to pay much attention to this hot topic in 80s.
In accordance with urgent clinical needs, researchers discussed this issue openly in 90s. As a result of this discussion, they proposed then a new diagnostic term - "Qigong-induced disorder"- in the category of "culture-related disorders" in CCMD-2R (Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders, 2nd Revised Version). The essential forms of this kind of disorders are universal and can be identified in many cultures. For example, the so-called "altered state of consciousness" or "non-ordinary state of consciousness" is one of the core psychopathological phenomenon among a number of culturally colorful symptoms.
The more interesting thing for the author,however, is to see the relationship between Qigong-fervor and the adaptation-strategies of the Chinese people in the rapid modernization process.
Another example to demonstrate increased cultural consciousness was the enthusiasm for studies of the so-called "travelers psychosis", which was often seen among the long-distance travelers with crowed trains. Most of the researchers didnt consider this special disorder as one of the culture-bound syndromes. They paid much attention to the interactions among various physical and psychological factors. But some authors began to think of the importance of socio-cultural background for the formation of this phenomenon, e.g., they tried to understand this problem as one of the results of the inner immigration waves.
In the field of psychometrics, the cross-cultural revision of scales was fruitful. Many international-wide-used tools have now Chinese norms and are employed frequently in epidemiological, clinical and laboratory researches. With the help of psychometric methods, the researchers found interesting differences of intelligence, personality traits, and psychopathology among nationalities.
Besides the comparison among various nationalities within China, there were also some international projects to compare Chinese with other Asian-pacific nationalities and Caucasian. A team found, e.g., that the Beijing-born 4-month Chinese infants reacted to the outside world differently in comparison with the Boston-born and the Dublin-born Caucasian infants. The Chinese babies behavior was observed as milder and calmer than those of the Caucasian babies. This result suggested that there might be certain linkages between genetic predispositions and so-called "national characters".
Interactions between cultural and biological factors were also stressed in the studies on the biochemical mechanism of alcoholism. A team testified that the activities of the dehydrogenases related to metabolism of aldehyde and ethanol were different among some ethnic groups who had different eating and drinking traditions.
(Edited by Shuping,Tan) | | [CLOSE] |
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Ministry of Health, (2003) No.013
ICP:No.040657