ABSTRACT
Le corps joue un rôle primordial dans la relation avec l'autre et tient une place importante dans l'écoute chez l'Africain. Ce travail met en exergue l'hyperstimulation qui est faite du corps de l'Africain pendant les différentes étapes de la structuration de la personnalité. A travers la multiplicité de ses expressions, le corps investi va manifester un désir profond d'écoute. Il s'agit d'une écoute qui ne se limite pas à la simple perception sensorielle mais une écoute doublée d'un décodage de ce qui est au-delà du dicible, une écoute des mots mais aussi des maux. Ce type de communication est décrit à travers deux cas cliniques suivis au CNHU-HKM de Cotonou en 2017. Il s'est agi de deux jeunes adolescentes qui ont utilisé leurs corps pour exprimer les maux sur lesquels elles n'arrivaient pas à mettre des mots. Le corps est aussi le lieu de projection de la souffrance et de pratiques thérapeutiques : corps malade, corps soumis à des thérapies traditionnelles, des rites initiatiques. Il est important que le thérapeute sache décrypter les langages la plupart du temps codés du corps, en se référant aux valeurs vitales, esthétiques, et fonctionnelles qui lui sont rattachées pour mieux le soigner.
The body plays an essential role in the relationship with the other and holds an important place in the African's listening. This work highlights the hyperstimulation of the African's body during the different stages of personality structuring. Through the multiplicity of its expressions, the invested body will manifest a deep desire to listen. It is a listening that is not limited to a simple sensory perception but a listening coupled with a decoding of what is beyond the dicible, a listening of words but also of evils. This type of communication is described through two clinical cases monitored at CNHU-HKM Cotonou in 2017. These were two young teenage girls who used their bodies to express the ailments on which they could not put words. The body is also the place where suffering and therapeutic practices are projected: the sick body, the body subjected to traditional therapies, initiation rites. It is important that the therapist knows how to decipher the most commonly coded languages of the body by referring to the vital, aesthetic and functional values associated with it in order to better care for it.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Kinesics , Personality Development , Psychopathology , Disease , CultureABSTRACT
The objective of this study was to describe the social, demographic, and clinical profile of inpatients and outpatients 60 years or older treated for psychiatric disorders. This descriptive and analytic retrospective study took place at the inpatient and outpatient psychiatry departments at two university hospital centers in Lomé: Campus and Sylvanus Olympio of Lomé. It included patients aged 60 years or older seen during the 10-year period 2004-2013 who met ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for psychiatric disease. This series comprised 224 patients with a mean age of 67.6 ± 7.37 years (range: 60-97). Insomnia (16%), hallucinations (8.53%), and somatic complaints (7.73%) were the most frequent motives for consultation. Family or friends accompanied 80.36% of these patients to the consultation. Among the patients, 66.96% were aware of their disorder, and 60.71% showed an adherence to treatment. The main diagnoses were depressive disorders (25.89%) and various forms of dementia (23.66%) The prevention of depression disorders in this population requires real work on mourning.
Subject(s)
Mental Disorders/therapy , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Ambulatory Care , Female , Hospitalization , Hospitals, University , Humans , Male , Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Mental Disorders/epidemiology , Middle Aged , Retrospective Studies , Togo/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Ninety two major depressed outpatients were rated with the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS) in Cotonou, in Benin (West-Africa). Patients satisfied modified DSM III major depression criteria and were French-speaking. Men, civil servants, and city dwellers were over-represented in the population sample. The examination of item frequency yielded rather 'western-like' clinical features of depression: with differences described previously: a lower frequency of suicidal thoughts and guilt feelings, a higher frequency of somatic complaints and ideas of persecution. Principal component analysis reinforced 'western-like' aspects. The relationship between the so-called 'western culture-bound symptoms' and the so-called 'African ones' is discussed.
Subject(s)
Black People , Cross-Cultural Comparison , Depressive Disorder/diagnosis , Developing Countries , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales/statistics & numerical data , Adult , Benin , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Female , Humans , Male , Psychometrics , Social ChangeABSTRACT
The authors state that there is no diagnostic criteria for major depression adapted to Africa. Using available data about the clinical aspect of depressive disorders in African patients, they suggest criteria derived from DSM III. With regard to the American ones, the following modifications are brought to these criteria: dysphoric mood is no longer a compulsory criterion and two new criteria are included, concerning ideas of persecution and somatic complaints.
Subject(s)
Black or African American , Depressive Disorder/diagnosis , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Africa , Black People , Cultural Characteristics , Depressive Disorder/psychology , HumansABSTRACT
We report 5 cases of obsessive-compulsive disorders diagnosed among a sample of Beninese psychiatric outpatients. This type of report does not support the idea that this disorder is very rare in black Africa. Moreover, it appears that the clinical and epidemiological characteristics are not really different from those described in other continents.
Subject(s)
Black or African American/psychology , Cross-Cultural Comparison , Developing Countries , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/diagnosis , Adult , Benin , Black People , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/psychologyABSTRACT
The Psychopharmacological Studies Group of Fann, Dakar, considered the cultural expression of mental illness as it would help for a new definition of the nosographic frames, and inside of them, the appreciation of symptoms. This new definition would be applied "universally" if it may be considered that some symptoms are "culture-free" and others deeply marked by the discourse held by the person or by his social group. The use of valuation scales for symptomatic change during a treatment (here anti-depressive one) become harder by the undifferenciation of these two types of symptoms. Further, it may exist nosographic masks which can hide more curable substructures ; as often happens here, in masked depressions when the presented symptoms are those of acute or chronic psychotic manifestations. The efficacy of depressive treatment is then remarkable.
