PSYCHOSOCIAL AND BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ACUTE BRIEF PSYCHOSES IN 3 DEVELOPING-COUNTRY SITES

This study explored biological as well as psychosocial contributions t o the incidence of acute brief psychoses in three developing country s ites. The samples were taken from the five year follow-up data of the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia sites in Ibadan, Nigeria an d Agra, India, and from the Determinants of Outcome of Severe Mental D isorders rural Chandigarh site. Baseline narratives of the cases and c ontrols were reviewed and rated for presence or absence of three expos ures: fever, departure from or return to parental village (women), and job distress (men). Results showed an association between fever and a cute brief psychosis in all three sites. There was an association betw een acute brief psychosis and departure from or return to the parental village among women in all sites, and among men, an association betwe en job distress and acute brief psychosis was noted in Ibadan and Agra . These findings suggest that psychosocial and biological factors such as these three exposures merit further research to clarify their role s in the etiology of acute brief psychoses.