Psychosis in a peasant society: social outcomes

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Abstract
Several clinicians have theorized that somatic and residential treatments have an untoward effect on the eventual outcome of major mental illness. To test this hypothesis, social coping behavior was studied in mentally ill people in Laos, a predominantly peasant society with no psychiatrists or psychiatric hospitals. The Lao folk term baa (crazy or insane) was used in determining cases. Social factors studied included legal problems, family contact, sociability, friendship, communal activities, sexuality and work. Levels of social function in this sample were quite limited. Social disability associated with chronic psychosis cannot be ascribed totally to diagnostic labeling or institutionalization.

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