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ANZJP Correspondence
The importance of cross-cultural research in addictions Gustavo Costa Medeiros1, Eric Leppink2, Sarah Redden2, Mirella Mariani1, Ana Yaemi1, Hermano Tavares1 and Jon E Grant2 1Department
of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil 2Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Corresponding author: Gustavo Costa Medeiros, Rua Dr. Melo Alves, 265 apt 52, São Paulo-SP 01417-010, Brazil. Email: [email protected] DOI: 10.1177/0004867415583339
To the Editor Addictions exist in almost every culture and cause a huge social burden in the Asia-Pacific region (Australian Government, 2011; Bart, 2013). Addictions are strongly influenced by cultural elements since they involve a social factor (substance or behavior) that usually has relevant historical and cultural roots. Cross-cultural psychiatry (CCP) may help advance the field of addiction in several ways. First, CCP may improve our understanding of the differences between cultures within a country. This is interesting since ethnic minorities, such as the Aboriginal population, appear to be more vulnerable to addictions (Australian Government, 2011). Second, CCP may enhance our knowledge of the presentation of addictions in countries with different social backgrounds. Given that the
Surreptitious metformin abuse in anorexia nervosa presenting as periodic hypoglycaemia Maha Prakash Sharma and Sujit Kumar Kar
majority of the studies in this field come from the United States (Helinski and Spanagel, 2011), this is a notable gap in our current knowledge. Third, by enhancing our knowledge on how culture affects addiction, we may better understand its etiology. To illustrate how CCP may contribute to the understanding of addiction, we assessed demographics, gambling behavior and psychiatric lifetime comorbidities in 1446 adults with gambling disorder. They were recruited in Brazil (n = 923) and in the United States (n = 523), two countries with significant sociocultural differences. The two samples were recruited using similar strategies and consisted of treatmentseeking individuals. The data collection process was approved by the ethics committee of the three universities involved in this research. We used a Bonferroni correction and set the significance level at 0.002 (0.05/26 = 0.002), and we included corrections to account for demographic differences. Our sample had a mean age of 45.67 years (standard deviation [SD]: 1.3 years); 52.9% were male. Brazilians were mainly males (56% vs 47.4%; χ2 = 9.896; p = 0.002), had a lower proportion identifying as Caucasian (75.5% vs 88.5%; χ2 = 35.629; p
ANZJP Correspondence
The importance of cross-cultural research in addictions Gustavo Costa Medeiros1, Eric Leppink2, Sarah Redden2, Mirella Mariani1, Ana Yaemi1, Hermano Tavares1 and Jon E Grant2 1Department
of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil 2Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Corresponding author: Gustavo Costa Medeiros, Rua Dr. Melo Alves, 265 apt 52, São Paulo-SP 01417-010, Brazil. Email: [email protected] DOI: 10.1177/0004867415583339
To the Editor Addictions exist in almost every culture and cause a huge social burden in the Asia-Pacific region (Australian Government, 2011; Bart, 2013). Addictions are strongly influenced by cultural elements since they involve a social factor (substance or behavior) that usually has relevant historical and cultural roots. Cross-cultural psychiatry (CCP) may help advance the field of addiction in several ways. First, CCP may improve our understanding of the differences between cultures within a country. This is interesting since ethnic minorities, such as the Aboriginal population, appear to be more vulnerable to addictions (Australian Government, 2011). Second, CCP may enhance our knowledge of the presentation of addictions in countries with different social backgrounds. Given that the
Surreptitious metformin abuse in anorexia nervosa presenting as periodic hypoglycaemia Maha Prakash Sharma and Sujit Kumar Kar
majority of the studies in this field come from the United States (Helinski and Spanagel, 2011), this is a notable gap in our current knowledge. Third, by enhancing our knowledge on how culture affects addiction, we may better understand its etiology. To illustrate how CCP may contribute to the understanding of addiction, we assessed demographics, gambling behavior and psychiatric lifetime comorbidities in 1446 adults with gambling disorder. They were recruited in Brazil (n = 923) and in the United States (n = 523), two countries with significant sociocultural differences. The two samples were recruited using similar strategies and consisted of treatmentseeking individuals. The data collection process was approved by the ethics committee of the three universities involved in this research. We used a Bonferroni correction and set the significance level at 0.002 (0.05/26 = 0.002), and we included corrections to account for demographic differences. Our sample had a mean age of 45.67 years (standard deviation [SD]: 1.3 years); 52.9% were male. Brazilians were mainly males (56% vs 47.4%; χ2 = 9.896; p = 0.002), had a lower proportion identifying as Caucasian (75.5% vs 88.5%; χ2 = 35.629; p
