Culture and panic disorder: how far have we come?

Appropriation and dementia in India

Biomedical technologies like MRI scans offer a way for carers and people with dementia to 'see' pathology, as a means to reorient their perceptions of the body and functionality. Through interpretive and syncretic processes, the MRI and the diagnosis of dementia facilitate the incorporation of the clinical category 'dementia' into social understandings of illness and care in India. Complex shifts occur as families and providers move from socio-cultural explanations of disruption to bio-social etiologies of the disease 'dementia' and then to socio-ecological frameworks of causality. Both the biomedicalisation of illness and the localisation of illness occur as the clinical category 'dementia' is folded into local understandings of illness and care. Through elucidating how the dialectic between biomedical and local knowledge is operationalized, we offer insights into how dementia is absorbed and appropriated into Indian cultural contexts.

Screening for dementia: fluidity and the Mini Mental State Examination in India

The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is a popular screening instrument for dementia. Drawing on ethnographic data from India, three vignettes are presented to examine how the MMSE is operationalised by interviewers and respondents. Using the concept of 'fluidity' from Science and Technology Studies, it will be demonstrated that the MMSE is fluid and changes according to individual norms, institutional resources, and cultural settings. In some environments, the scores are discounted in order to count; in others, the scale is perceived as an invitation to talk; and finally, the MMSE can also operate as an entry-point to seek treatment for other psychological concerns.