Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Women's Pathways to Mental Health: Comparing Psychiatry and Mystical-Spiritual Healing In Urban North India

博士生Anubha Sood（华盛顿大学圣路易斯分校）将在Rebecca Lester博士的指导下在印度进行研究，以调查为什么患有精神疾病的女性对神秘精神治疗传统的信仰比国家支持的生物医学精神病学更大。虽然印度的流行病学数据显示，在公共卫生精神病诊所，男性人数是女性的三倍，但在神秘精神治疗场所，女性占主导地位也同样有据可查。解释为什么妇女更喜欢在寺庙寻求帮助，而不是参加同样负担得起和容易获得的精神病设施将有助于推进寻求健康行为的理论，因为随着国家现代化和扩大精神卫生保健系统，自我和健康的概念都在不断变化。研究人员将采用人种志方法比较妇女参加者在印度北部城市两个流行环境中寻求护理的经历，一个公共卫生精神病诊所和一个印度教治疗寺庙。研究方法将包括以人为中心的访谈，以了解妇女的主观治疗经验;参与观察两个设施的诊断和治疗做法;文化领域分析，以了解当地的心理健康和治疗知识;许多发展中国家，尽管传统系统非常受欢迎，支持生物医学精神病学作为精神卫生保健的更好选择。 这项研究对于了解在转型的发展中国家背景下，当地健康理解与西方护理模式之间的摩擦如何影响妇女等服务不足人群的健康需求非常重要。资助这项研究也支持社会科学家的教育。

Doctoral student Anubha Sood (Washington University in St. Louis), supervised by Dr. Rebecca Lester, will undertake research in India to investigate why women experiencing mental ill health invest greater faith in mystical-spiritual healing traditions than state-supported biomedical psychiatry. While Indian epidemiological data reveal that men outnumber women three to one at public health psychiatric clinics, the predominance of women in mystical-spiritual healing sites is equally well-documented. Explaining why women prefer seeking help at the temple rather than attending a similarly affordable and accessible psychiatric facility will help to advance theories of health-seeking behavior when notions of both self and health are in flux as countries modernize and expand mental health care systems.The researcher will employ ethnographic methods to compare the experiences of women attendees seeking care in two popular settings in urban North India, a public health psychiatric clinic and a Hindu healing temple. The research methods will include person-centered interviews to understand women's subjective treatment experiences; participant observation of diagnoses and therapeutic practices at the two facilities; cultural domain analysis to understand local knowledge of mental health and healing; and vignette technique to understand help-seeking strategies.Many developing countries, despite the overwhelming popularity of traditional systems, espouse biomedical psychiatry as the better choice for mental health care. This research is important in understanding how frictions between local health understandings and Western models of care in transitioning developing world contexts impact the health needs of underserved populations such as women. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.