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

博士研究生Anubha Sood(华盛顿大学圣路易斯分校)在丽贝卡·莱斯特博士的指导下，将在印度进行研究，调查为什么经历精神疾病的女性比国家支持的生物医学精神病学更相信神秘的精神治疗传统。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，但女性在神秘精神疗愈场所的优势也同样得到了很好的证明。解释为什么女性更喜欢去寺庙寻求帮助，而不是去同样负担得起、也同样方便的精神病院，这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变化。研究人员将使用人种学方法来比较女性参与者在北印度城市两个受欢迎的环境--公共卫生精神科诊所和印度教康复寺庙--寻求治疗的经历。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；参与观察两个机构的诊断和治疗实践；文化领域分析，以了解当地的心理健康和康复知识；以及Vignette技术，以了解求助策略。许多发展中国家，尽管传统系统压倒性地普及，支持生物医学精神病学作为精神卫生保健的更好选择。这项研究对于理解发展中世界转型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未得到充分服务的人群的健康需求具有重要意义。资助这项研究还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.