Psychiatry in the Ukraine

[摘要] Although psychiatry is practiced throughout the world, the unique customs of any specific cultural group and the available resources in their region may influence the nature of their clinical practices. These practices can change abruptly when the sociopolitical system influencing psychiatric practices change. For instance, psychiatric practice and research has experienced a marked evolution and transition in the Ukraine in the past 20 years following the establishment of independence in 1991. It is well documented that until the 1980s, psychiatry was often used for political purposes by the authorities in the former Soviet Union.1-3 Political dissidents were often given a diagnosis of “sluggish” schizophrenia based upon a now discredited Soviet “idea” about psychiatric illness developed by Professor Snezhnevsky, the Director of Psychiatry at the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences in those years.3 His theory conveniently described a schizophrenic disorder characterized by a ‘negative axis’ of symptoms that included conflict with authorities, poor social adaptation, and pessimism without the need for actual psychosis.3 In the Ukraine, the end of communism brought an end to these theories and allowed psychiatrists to learn from the rest of the world

[学科分类] 精神健康和精神病学