Common mental disorders among people with origins in or immigrant from India and Pakistan

This paper reviews the literature on common mental disorders among Indian a nd Pakistani peoples in the UK. I briefly, report on findings from India an d Pakistan to contextualize contemporary hypotheses about culture and menta l ill health in the UK. I then discuss rite UK studies beginning with hospi tal based findings and then community and primary care based research. The latter is a special area of interest in the UK where rite general practitio ner manages the majority of common mental disorders by virtue of his or her frequent contact with local populations. There has been considerable contr oversy about primary care presentations of common mental disorders amongst 'Asians' for whom the concept of somatization as a process is often invoked to explain what might simply be a failure lit emotional communication. The se complexities are discussed alongside methodological problems in studies of Indian and Pakistani peoples to whom, ill the UK, the term 'Asian' is us ually applied. Some of the complexities of methodology and interpretation w ill be of relevant to other populations with different socio-cultured backg rounds. The review emphasizes 'Asian' specific and general issues in cross- cultural psychiatric research.