Who seeks mental health care in China? Diagnoses of Chinese outpatients according to DSM-III criteria and the Chinese classification system.

The authors gave DSM-III diagnoses to 116 Chinese psychiatric outpatients in Shanghai and compared them with the diagnoses of the same patients made by a Chinese psychiatrist according to Chinese criteria. Affective disorders were the most common DSM-III diagnoses, accounting for 26.7% of the sample. A full range of psychopathology, including schizophrenia, organic mental disorders, adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders, and paranoid disorders, was seen. Some consistent differences in diagnosis by Chinese and Western standards, especially in the area of major depression, were found. The authors discuss the implications for interpreting psychiatric studies from China and for future cross-cultural research comparing U.S. and Chinese diagnoses.