Graduation Year
2018
Date of Submission
4-2018
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
W.M. Keck Science Department
Second Department
Biology
Reader 1
Elise Ferree
Reader 2
John Milton
Rights Information
2018 Cheryl L Smith
Abstract
Much cross-cultural research has been done on the topic of schizophrenia, but few studies thus far have focused on lifetime prevalence and prognosis together, grouped by world region. Additionally, there has been severe bias in which countries and regions have been studied both historically and currently. Any study that had statistics on lifetime prevalence per 1000 people and/or DALYs, from a specified country or region, was included in this thesis. Results showed that lifetime prevalence of schizophrenia does not differ among WHO regions, but DALYs and thus prognosis do differ. Several major conclusions can be drawn from these results. One is that prognosis differs even though prevalence does not. Another is that schizophrenia is not a region-specific disorder. A third is that the reason that prevalence does not differ among regions could be due to biological causes of schizophrenia being more powerful than environmental causes. A fourth is that the reasons that prognosis differs in different regions are plentiful, but can all be derived from social support and community. The implications of these conclusions can be used to better the prognosis of people with schizophrenia worldwide, but further cross-cultural research in underrepresented countries is essential.
Recommended Citation
Smith, Cheryl Lynn, "Do the Lifetime Prevalence and Prognosis of Schizophrenia Differ Among World Regions?" (2018). CMC Senior Theses. 1978.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1978
