Child psychiatry across cultures

The mental health of children its developing countries is important but und erexplored Methodological problems of prevalence studies in this field incl ude the toe of case definitions and disability criteria developed ill the W est and rite assumption that dimensions of disorder and thresholds for repo rting problems are similar to European and North American populations. Scho ol, clinic and population-based prevalence studies conducted in developing countries report a diversity of prevalence rates but the absence of methodo logical uniformity prevents useful comparisons. in addition to social, demo graphic and academic associations of child psychiatric disorder in developi ng countries, the relevance of malnutrition, tropical infections and advers e perinatal factors is reviewed. The implications of research findings for service provision are discussed.