Socio-cultural factors and psychiatric clinical assessment

Abstract EN

Social and cultural factors are very important, although they are both neglected aspects of the psychiatric health of the population.

one example is the finding of a link between unemployment and the rising incidence of suicide in young men15.

psychiatric training is sometime dominated by biological thinking which takes little account of social and cultural factors.

this may limit understanding of these important factors and thereby reduce the effectiveness of psychiatric management.

the adoption of the psychodynamic formulation by the royal college of psychiatrists has managed to put psychological factors into the curriculum of training in clinical psychiatry.

a similar emphasis on social and cultural factors is needed to ensure trainees awareness of these factors