Question 26#

Choose the best explanation for the term spirituality:

A. Affiliation to a religious group

D. Contrary to widely held belief, spirituality is not defined as affiliation to religious practice or accepting God. It rather refers to deeply held beliefs about the meaning of one’s life.

Reference:

1. Kay J and Tasman A, eds. Essentials of Psychiatry. Wiley, 2006, p. 23.

Question 27#

The International Pilot Study on Schizophrenia concluded that global, cultural, and social differences exist in which one of the following characters of schizophrenia?

A. Core symptoms

C. The IPSS (International Pilot Study on Schizophrenia) was a global, multicentre study carried out by the WHO. The main finding was a strikingly similar core symptom profile irrespective of cultural differences and more or less similar life-time morbid risk (though this has been disputed; See McGrath NAPE lecture 2004). Surprisingly, outcome of schizophrenia was better in the developing, rather than the developed countries.

References:

1. McGrath JJ. The surprisingly rich contours of schizophrenia epidemiology. Archives of General Psychiatry 2007; 64: 14–16.
2. McGrath JJ. Myths and plain truths about schizophrenia epidemiology – the NAPE lecture 2004. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 2005; 111: 4–11.

Question 28#

Which one of the following psychopathologies is influenced more significantly by cultural differences than the others listed?

A. Delusions

B. Somatization is consistently found to be higher among South Asian populations, especially in females. Linguistic differences could explain an apparent inability to verbalize emotions, leading to requests for medical interventions for physical symptoms. Cultural sensitivity is essential to detect undiagnosed depression in different ethnic groups.

Reference:

1. Bhui K and Hotopf M. Somatization disorder. British Journal of Hospital Medicine 1997; 58: 145–149.

Question 29#

When using interpreters during psychiatric interview it is best NOT to:

A. Explain goals of the interview to the interpreter

B. Using different interpreters for different sessions of clinical encounter with the same patient will lead to confusion and needless anxiety due to the presence of a new person during each doctor– patient meeting. It is advisable to stick to the same interpreter when dealing with a particular patient. Knowing the interpreter’s social and ethnic background might help in utilizing the interpretation better. Also, the Mental State Examination can be misinterpreted by a lay person – it is often necessary to instruct the interpreter to translate certain parts of the clinical interview verbatim.

Reference:

1. Kay J and Tasman A, eds. Essentials of Psychiatry. Wiley, 2006, p. 27.

Question 30#

Clinical samples of patients with anorexia nervosa show a trend towards which of the following social categories?

A. Upper social class

A. An unequal distribution of social class is noted in anorexia. Higher representation from upper classes of society, good literacy rates, and higher frequency of non-immigrant populations is noted among clinical samples of anorexia patients. This strengthens the aspect of culture specificity of anorexia nervosa.

Reference:

1. Gelder MG et al., eds. New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 836.