Cultural psychiatry is concerned with understanding the impact of social and cultural differences and similarities on mental illness and its treatments. A person's cultural characteristics can often lead to misunderstandings, influenced by language, non-verbal styles, codes of etiquette and assumptions. There may also be perceived misconceptions and differences in beliefs and values. In order to provide appropriate, sensitive and acceptable services for different cultural groups, all service providers need to take these factors into account. Written by leading clinicians and academics from around the world, and integrating both practical and theoretical knowledge, the Textbook of Cultural Psychiatry provides a framework for the provision of mental healthcare in a multi-cultural/ multi-racial society and global economy. It will be essential reading for those providing mental healthcare, or who are involved in the organisation and management of services.

Commended in the Mental Health category by the British Medical Association 2008

Review of the hardback:‘This is the first publication in the field to call itself a textbook …’

Source: Lancet

Review of the hardback:'Bhugra and Bhui's edited volume is a superb work of scholarship: a great achievement. … It has been exceedingly well edited; all chapters are well written, without overlap of content and each begins with an editorial introduction putting the contribution into context. … Empathy and the ability to enable patients to tell us their stories are the skills that separate psychiatrists from the rest of the medical profession: this book serves as an aid to those skills and demonstrates the complexity of what a realistic scientific psychopathology has to engage with and the level of art clinicians have to aspire to. Given that all psychiatry must be cultural psychiatry, this book is recommended to all clinicians and given its high academic content, will be of great value to many researchers, particularly those interested in epidemiology for their service to psychiatry.'

Source: Journal of Mental Health