CULTURAL RESPONSE TO MENTAL-ILLNESS IN SENEGAL - REFLECTIONS THROUGH PATIENT COMPANIONS .1. METHODS AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA

Patient records from the Thiaroye mental hospital in Senegal were anal yzed to see if the patterns of persons accompanying patients to the ho spital could help portray the community's response to mental illness. A systematic sample of 935 records of initial out-patient visits were examined. Patterns of patient companionship were found to strongly cor relate with specific patient sociodemographic and clinical characteris tics. Interpretation of these findings helped to clarify both prevaili ng attitudes toward the mentally ill and the social response and manag ement of mental illness. This article presents the study setting, meth ods, patient sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, and charac teristics of patient companions. The second article in this series exa mines the statistical associations of companion number, gender and kin ship relationship with patient sociodemographic and clinical character istics.