Changing men's attitudes and behavior: the Zimbabwe Male Motivation Project.

A multimedia communication campaign was conducted between 1988 and 1989 to promote family planning among men in Zimbabwe. The campaign consisted of a 52-episode semiweekly radio soap opera, about 60 motivational talks, and two pamphlets about contraceptive methods. Changes over time were measured by comparing a subset of a follow-up survey conducted from October to December 1989 to a baseline survey conducted from April to June 1988. Men exposed to the campaign were also compared to men who were not exposed. The follow-up survey revealed that the campaign reached 52 percent of men aged 18 to 55. Among married Shona-speaking men, use of modern contraceptive methods increased from about 56 percent to 59 percent during the campaign. Condom use increased from about 5 percent to 10 percent. Awareness and current use of modern contraceptives was also higher among men exposed to the campaign, primarily because of their greater awareness of condoms. Men exposed to the campaign were significantly more likely than other men to make the decision to use family planning and to say that both spouses should decide how many children to have.

Psychiatry in Zimbabwe.

Like many developing countries, Zimbabwe has a shortage of trained mental health professionals. The country is coping by developing an expanded role for nurses and other nonphysician mental health workers and by emphasizing use of medication in treating mental illnesses. The authors review traditional Zimbabwean beliefs about mental illness and healing and describe culturally specific patterns of illness presentation. To reverse the historic pattern in which psychiatric care was centralized in cities, Zimbabwe is establishing a countrywide system of primary health clinics, part of whose role is to screen and treat common mental disorders, educate communities about mental illness, and promote prevention of illness.

Personality disorder in black patients in Zimbabwe.

The complex inter-relationships between personal illness and personality disorder are discussed, and Foulds' model based on Venn diagrams is proposed as an adequate conceptual framework. A dimensional model is proposed for the classification of personality disorders. Three patients are discussed to illustrate some of the pitfalls in diagnosis and differential diagnosis. It is concluded that conventional concepts in psychopathology appear to be applicable to Black patients.

Psychiatric outpatient services in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe.

A prospective survey was undertaken of 104 consecutive Black patients newly referred to a psychiatric outpatient clinic in a general hospital. Schizophrenia, acute brain syndromes and depression emerged as the major diagnostic categories, comprising almost two-thirds of the patients. The differentiation between acute brain syndromes and schizophrenia proved to be particularly difficult, and the outpatient management of patients with significant thought disorders or clouding of consciousness is not recommended. The diagnostic features of depression, on the other hand, are fairly reliable and depressives can usually be managed on an outpatient basis, which may save a large number of admissions to both medical and psychiatric beds.