Related Experiment Videos
Psychiatric services in China: or, Mao versus Freud
Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal
|October 1, 1978
Summary
Chinese psychiatric services primarily treat psychosis and severe neurosis, differing significantly from Western approaches. Mental health issues are often managed as general health or social concerns, not distinct psychiatric problems.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Public Health
- Global Health
Background:
- China's healthcare system shows progress, especially at primary and community levels.
- Information on psychiatric services in the People's Republic of China is limited.
- A 1977 delegation of 12 health professionals visited China to study mental health services.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe and analyze the network of mental health services in China.
- To compare Chinese psychiatric patient demographics with Western countries.
- To understand the management of behavioral and mental health issues in Chinese society.
Main Methods:
- A three-week observational study in July 1977.
- Analysis of data from one mental hospital, six general hospitals, and various health units.
- Impressionistic survey of traditional Chinese medicine rooms in general hospitals.
Main Results:
- Shanghai mental hospital admissions: 83% young acute schizophrenic cases, contrasting sharply with Western admissions (e.g., 12% in Canada).
- Traditional Chinese medicine rooms treated 60-70% of cases with conditions considered neurotic or psychosomatic in the West.
- Behavioral issues in communes were handled within the prevailing moral and political ideology, not as specific mental health problems.
Conclusions:
- Chinese psychiatric services focus on psychosis and severe neurosis.
- Neuroses are treated as general health problems, and personality/behavioral disorders as social matters.
- Mental illness has low priority in Chinese medical education and health service planning.