IMMIGRATION AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY - A CLINICAL-STUDY

Three groups of 342 Greek, Iberian and Belgian psychiatric patients we re compared, matched for sex, age, and time of hospitalization in a un iversity hospital in Brussels. Schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder /atypical psychosis were diagnosed more among immigrant patients. Soma tic anxiety, loss of libido, delusions and hallucinations were symptom s that clinicians observed more in immigrant than in native patients. Atypical symptomatology and change of diagnosis were more likely to oc cur among immigrant patients. A higher proportion of second generation immigrant patients had a diagnosis of schizophrenia than either the f irst generation or the Belgians. Male immigrant patients were prescrib ed anxiolytic drugs more frequently than male natives, but were less l ikely to be referred to psychotherapy. The authors query whether these findings derive from specificities in the use of psychiatric services and/or from biases in clinicians' attitudes towards patients of diffe rent ethnic origin.