Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Cross-Cultural Research on Psychiatry, Gender and Childhood

哥伦比亚大学博士生萨哈尔·萨贾迪医学博士将在卡罗尔·万斯博士的指导下，对精神病学诊断和西方诊断工具的跨文化影响进行比较研究。研究的重点将是自1980年以来在诊断和治疗方面围绕儿童性别障碍的当前临床做法，以及最近由美国精神病学协会的精神疾病诊断和统计手册工作组修订的诊断类别的使用和影响。这项研究将在两家诊所进行，一家在马萨诸塞州波士顿，另一家在伊朗德黑兰。研究人员将通过在工作队和诊所的参与观察，通过对临床医生、患者和父母的采访，以及通过研究《诊断和统计手册》文本和技术工具来收集数据。这项研究具有重要意义，因为它将是第一次对儿童这些特殊疾病进行跨文化人类学研究。更广泛地说，它将阐明《诊断和统计手册》在世界范围内日益增长的影响力。这项研究还将开发新的方法，以便在全球专家知识和当地临床实践的多个、相互联系和不平等的规模之间移动。支持这项研究也支持研究生的教育。

Columbia University doctoral student, Sahar Sadjadi, MD, with the guidance of Dr. Carole Vance, will undertake comparative research on psychiatric diagnoses and the influence of western diagnostic tools across cultures. The focus of the research will be current clinical practices around gender disorders in children, in both diagnosis and treatment, since 1980, and the use and influence of the diagnostic categories recently revised by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Task Force of the American Psychiatric Association. The research will be carried out in two clinics, one in Boston, MA, and the other in Tehran, Iran. The researcher will collect data through participant observation in the Task Force and clinics; through interviews with clinicians, patients, and parents; and through study of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual texts and technical instruments.The research is significant because it will be the first cross-cultural anthropological study of these particular disorders in children. More generally, it will elucidate the increasing world-wide influence of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. The research also will develop new methodologies for moving among the multiple, connected, and unequal scales of global expert knowledge, and local clinical practice. Supporting this research also supports the education of a graduate student.