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Migration and Psychosis

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Mental Health, Mental Illness and Migration

Part of the book series: Mental Health and Illness Worldwide ((MHIW))

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Abstract

This chapter reviews the literature on migration as a risk factor for psychosis dating from the work of Ødegaard. The earlier crude hospital counts have been replaced by more sophisticated population-based incidence studies. Research has identified several major trends:

  1. I.

    European studies indicate that the risk of psychosis is higher in all immigrant groups than in the host population.

  2. II.

    Meta-analytic studies have shown a high mean weighted relative risk for developing schizophrenia for first generation immigrants.

  3. III.

    Some studies have shown also that the increased risk persists for second generation immigrants.

Various explanations are given for the above findings. The chapter then considers issues of screening and assessment of immigrants and concludes with treatment approaches. The need for an anthropological and ethnographic approach is emphasized. The encounters between providers and migrants and their families are to be seen essentially as transcultural encounters.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Health, Culture and Society, South Nashville, TN, USA

    Samuel O. Okpaku

  2. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Ademola B. Adeponle

  3. Culture and Mental Health Research Unit, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Ademola B. Adeponle

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, The Miriam Hospital, Providence, RI, USA

    Robert Kohn

Authors
  1. Samuel O. Okpaku
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  2. Ademola B. Adeponle
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  3. Robert Kohn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samuel O. Okpaku .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Ibn Rushd University Psychiatric Centre, Casablanca, Morocco

    Driss Moussaoui

  2. Centre for Affective Disorders, IoPPN, Kings College, London, UK

    Dinesh Bhugra

  3. School of Psychology, University of East London and Centre for Psychiatry, within the Wolfson Institute for Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Rachel Tribe

  4. Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy

    Antonio Ventriglio

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Okpaku, S.O., Adeponle, A.B., Kohn, R. (2021). Migration and Psychosis. In: Moussaoui, D., Bhugra, D., Tribe, R., Ventriglio, A. (eds) Mental Health, Mental Illness and Migration. Mental Health and Illness Worldwide. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2366-8_12

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