Relationship of migration to paranoid and somatoform symptoms in Chinese patients

Among 162 consecutive adult Chinese new psychiatric patients, the proportion of Chinese immigrants was not significantly higher, compared with the 1986 by-census results. However, the proportion of immigrants with predominant somatoform symptoms was significantly higher (p less than 0.02), and that of immigrants with predominant paranoid symptoms was almost significantly higher (p = 0.052) than the corresponding proportions of immigrants without these symptoms. Evidence was given suggesting that the increased proportion of paranoid immigrants was probably due to social selection, while the increased proportion of somatoform immigrants could be explained by the social causation theory.