Westernisation of the cluster of symptoms for schizophrenia

The diagnosis has historically been associated with distress from voice
hearing. Even in the modern definition. Many people have a voice in
their head but it's only a small proportion who go through the
experience of distress from it.

However studies on the ethnic prevalence of auditory hallucinations show
it's more common in black and white people. Asians have a lower prevalence.

Psychiatry was incepted in Industrial Age Western countries. There were
few Asians in America and Europe.

There's been some campaigning work to have the voice hearing component
removed from the diagnosis but I suspect that would be impossible if the
validity and reliability trials are true. The diagnosis is supposed to
be scientifically made.

Obviously clinical practice is far different. At the moment
schizophrenia is a diagnosis used on black men significantly more than
it should. It's been used for many socio-political reasons in the past.

It might just be that black men are more hostile to psychiatrists and
not institutional racism from the medical profession, but black men have
a right to be hostile to psychiatrists. They have good reason to be.
They section, drug and apply Community Treatment Orders them more than
their white counterparts.