Idioms of distress, ethnopsychology, and the clinical encounter in Haiti's Central Plateau
Abstract
Haiti's 2010 earthquake mobilized mental health and psychosocial interventions from across the globe. However, failure to understand how psychological distress is communicated between lay persons and health workers in rural clinics, where most Haitians access care, has been a major limitation in providing mental health services. The goal of this study was to map idioms of distress onto Haitian ethnopsychologies in a way that promotes improved communication between lay persons and clinicians in rural Haiti. In Haiti's Central Plateau, an ethnographic study was conducted in May and June 2010, utilizing participant observation in rural clinics, 31 key informant interviews, 11 focus groups, and four case studies. Key informants included biomedical practitioners, traditional healers, community leaders, and municipal and religious figures. Deductive and inductive themes were coded using content analysis (inter-rater reliability > 0.70). Forty-four terms for psychological distress were identified. Head (tèt) or heart (kè) terms comprise 55% of all qualitative text segments coded for idioms of distress. Twenty-eight of 142 observed patient-clinician contacts involved persons presenting with tèt terms, while 29 of the 142 contacts were presentations with kè terms. Thus, 40% of chief complaints were conveyed in either head or heart terms. Interpretations of these terms differed between lay and clinical groups. Lay respondents had broad and heterogeneous interpretations, whereas clinici…
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The complicated/uncomplicated status was found to predict the severity of depression significantly better than the standard number-of-symptoms measures.
“The complicated/uncomplicated status was found to predict the severity of depression significantly better than the standard number-of-symptoms measures. 73”
From Time for united action on depression: a Lancet–World Psychiatric Association Commission (2022) · cites this paper as [73]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Keys, H. M., Kaiser, B. N., Kohrt, B. A., Khoury, N. M., & Brewster, A.-R. T.
- Affiliations
- Emory University (US)
- George Washington University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kohrt, Brandon A.
- Venue
- Social Science & Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-08
- Volume
- 75
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 555-564
- ISSN
- 0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1966853948
- Cited by
- 160
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 63 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 12.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Emory University's Global Health Institute Multidisciplinary Team Field Scholars Award
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (0234618)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Cultural Competency in Health Care
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychology and Mental Health
- Keywords
- idioms of distress, ethnopsychology, patient-clinician communication, rural mental health services, 2010 Haiti earthquake, psychosocial interventions, traditional healers
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Communication, Emotions, Ethnopsychology, Female, Haiti, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Professional-Patient Relations, Stress, Psychological, Cultural Competency, Earthquakes
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