Detecting psychotic symptoms in Indigenous populations: A review of available assessment tools

Abstract

As efforts to shorten the duration of untreated psychosis increase, there is a need for short screening instruments to identify those at-risk. It is feared that remote Indigenous populations, manifesting many of the risk factors associated with schizophrenia and often lacking access to adequate mental health services, may be overlooked as the general population effort shifts towards early detection. This article aimed to review studies investigating psychotic symptoms in Indigenous communities in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and United States of America and aimed to evaluate the usefulness of the instruments. Eleven relevant studies were identified using seven unique instruments. The avail..