[Psychiatric epidemiology in an underdeveloped country]

An epidemiological study of the "Serer" of Senegal has been performed. This work was aimed at studying the problem of stress of "acculturation" in an underdeveloped country by comparing general health and mental health in two groups of Serer, one having migrated to Dakar and the other having remained in a traditional rural milieu. No difference in health was observed between the two groups. This research also shows that the popular equation: primitive and rural milieu = tranquillity and urban milieu = stress is to simplistic. Our work has resulted, in light of the Serer experiment, to bring some modifications to this equation.