CULTURE, SCHIZOPHRENIA, AND ATYPICAL ANTIPSYCHOTICS

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH

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Abstract

This anthropological study investigates the subjective experience of schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorders under treatment conditions characterized by medication with atypical antipsychotics. There are two specific aims: (1) to examine a series of hypotheses concerning (a) how subjects perceive the effects of atypical antipsychotics on symptomatic improvement or worsening; socio-emotional comfort or vulnerability; and medication side effects; (b) features of sociocultural context, specifically sex and ethnicity, that may mediate illness experience during treatment with atypical antipsychotics, as well as features, specifically gender identity and household composition, that may modify illness experience; and (2) to provide an ethnographic account of the subjective experience of schizophrenic illness under specific treatment conditions in clinic and home settings, brining to bear recent developments in culture theory. The overall goal of this research is the identification of cultural and psychosocial factors that may affect the phenomenology and meaning (i.e., subjective experience) of schizophrenic disorders during treatment with atypical antipsychotic drugs. The subjective experience of schizophrenia will be studied with a sample of 120 psychiatric outpatients from the Psychobiology Clinic of greater Cleveland though use of convergent, complementary methods (ethnographic interviewing and observations, administered questionnaires, and self-report). In addition, a sub-sample of 32 patients will be studied on a monthly basis for one year through ethnographic home visits. The final product will be a comprehensive account of the experience of patients undergoing treatment with atypical antipsychotics. It is anticipated that the findings will contribute to the literature on culture, gender, ethnicity and psychopathology and to treatment strategies for optimal illness management through state-of-the-art medications.