Cross-Cultural Studies of Symptomatology in Schizophrenia*

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to review some of the main cross-cultural studies of symptomatology in schizophrenia. Although it is shown that there are cultural variations of symptomatology, the reliability of these observations seems to be questionable. The inclusion of behaviour of different description into the concept of schizophrenia throws serious doubts on the usefulness and desirability of this concept as presently used in cross-cultural studies. However, problems of reliability or validity of observations at the cross-cultural level pose similar problems, encountered at the inter-individual. A more reliable and rigorous system of classification is needed to differentiate between normal and schizophrenic behaviour in different cultures or within the same culture. Cross-cultural studies suggest that some responses (e.g., conceptual) are more amenable to the influence of culture than others (e.g., physiological). Thus if it is demonstrated that different cultural groups show similar responses on some relatively culture-free tasks (e.g., EEG. pupillary responses) it would be plausible to suggest similar processes cross-culturally. These processes may underlie behaviour disorders such as schizophrenia despite the inter-individual or cross-cultural differences in their manifestations.