| The present investigation is one part of a larger transnational psychiatric study entitled "The WHO-NIMH Collaborative Project on the Determinants of Outcome of Severe Mental Disorders." The purpose of the author's descriptive study is to examine the relationship between demographic (i.e., gender, ethnicity) and clinical variables (i.e., diagnosis, mode of onset) and the patients' perception about the nature, cause and control of their first episode psychotic disorder.;The major findings showed statistically significant ethnic differences in the patients' perception of their disorder. Hawaiians and Filipinos were more likely to report a spiritual/magical disorder than Caucasians and Japanese (X('2) = 9.0, p = <.002). Patients with affective disorders were more likely to report mental disorders as the nature of their illness than schizophrenic and schizophreniform patients (X('2) = 12.5, p = <.001).;In the total patient sample, a greater proportion of patients reported a cause of disorder rather than no cause (X('2) = 56.4, p = <.001). In the context of the patients' narrative summaries reporting their causal perception of disorder, 87% of the affective patients reported events interpreted as psychosocial life stress as the cause of their mental disorder (X('2) = 11.1, p < .003). In contrast, the narrative responses by the schizophrenic and schizophreniform patients, interpreted as bizarre/psychotic ideational understandings of the cause of their disorder, were found to be statistically significant at the <.007 level.;This study is aimed at providing beginning knowledge in the area of causality and the locus of control from the perspective of first-episode psychotic patients. It has been designed to share information from consumers of psychiatric services which can be of use to health care providers for greater in-depth understanding of the individual experiencing an initial psychotic episode.;The study sample consists of 99 first-episode psychotic patients from selected mental health catchment areas on the island of Oahu. These subjects volunteered to participate in a series of standardized interviews over a defined period of time. From December, 1978 to April, 1984, clinical and psychosocial interviews were conducted by psychiatrists and behavioral scientists who were trained according to WHO standards of performance. |
