Publications by authors named "Rosemarie Mallett"

Background: Previous epidemiological studies have shown a high incidence of schizophrenia in African-Caribbeans in the UK, but not in Asians.

Aims: We investigated the hypothesis that cultural adherence might protect the Asians against the stress of living in a majority white culture.

Methods: The Culture and Identity Schedule (CANDID) was given to patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia making their first contact with psychiatric services, and to a matched group of controls randomly selected from the general population.

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Background: The incidence of schizophrenia in the African-Caribbean population in England is reported to be raised. We sought to clarify whether (a) the rates of other psychotic disorders are increased, (b) whether psychosis is increased in other ethnic minority groups, and (c) whether particular age or gender groups are especially at risk.

Method: We identified all people (n=568) aged 16-64 years presenting to secondary services with their first psychotic symptoms in three well-defined English areas (over a 2-year period in Southeast London and Nottingham and a 9-month period in Bristol).

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Context: Convention suggests uniformity of incidence of schizophrenia and other psychoses; variation would have implications for their causes and biological characteristics.

Objective: To investigate variability in the incidence of psychotic syndromes in terms of place, ethnicity, age, and sex.

Design: Three-center, prospective, comprehensive survey of clinically relevant first-onset psychotic syndromes over a 2-year period (1997-1999).

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Typical antipsychotic drugs act on the dopaminergic system, blocking the dopamine type 2 (D2) receptors. Atypical antipsychotics have lower affinity and occupancy for the dopaminergic receptors, and a high degree of occupancy of the serotoninergic receptors 5-HT2A. Whether these different pharmacological actions produce different effects on brain structure remains unclear.

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Background: There has been a relative dearth of epidemiological research into bipolar affective disorder. Furthermore, incidence studies of bipolar disorder have been predominantly retrospective and most only included hospital admission cases.

Aims: To determine the incidence of operationally defined bipolar disorder in three areas of the UK and to investigate any differences in gender and ethnicity.

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Background: The need to achieve is common to all societies, and failure to do so may have a highly detrimental psychological impact. For those on the margins of mainstream society, especially migrants or descendants of migrants, the impact of failed or poor achievements may increase their vulnerability to mental illness.

Aims: In a prospective study of schizophrenia in three ethnic groups (White, Indian and African-Caribbean) we studied the impact of goal striving and investigated whether the gap between the poor achievement and the high aspirations of members of some minority ethnic groups was potentially a factor contributing to the development of the illness.

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It has been consistently reported that the African-Caribbean population in the UK are more likely than their White counterparts to access psychiatric services via the police and under compulsion. The reasons for these differences are poorly understood. This paper comprises two main parts.

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Patients with schizophrenia and related psychoses have an excess of minor neurological abnormalities (neurological soft signs) of unclear neuropathological origin. These include poor motor coordination, sensory perceptual difficulties and difficulties in sequencing complex motor tasks. Neurological soft signs seem not to reflect primary tract or nuclear pathology.

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Background: There is accumulating evidence that genetic and neurodevelopmental factors cannot solely account for the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. In view of the reportedly increased incidence of schizophrenia among the African-Caribbean population in Britain, we sought to establish the socio-environmental influences which distinguished African-Caribbean patients from white British and Asian patients with schizophrenia, as well as from normal population controls of the same community.

Method: A matched case-control study was conducted in London between 1991 and 1993.

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