In general, mainstream psychiatric opinion remains that if a diagnostic category is valid, cross-cultural factors are either irrelevant or are significant only to specific symptom presentations.Clinical conceptions of mental illness also overlap with personal and cultural values in the domain of morality, so much so that it is sometimes argued that separating the two is impossible without fundamentally redefining the essence of being a particular person in a society. In clinical psychiatry, persistent distress and disability indicate an internal disorder requiring treatment; but in another context, that same distress and disability can be seen as an indicator of emotional struggle and the need to address social and structural problems. This dichotomy has led some academics and clinicians to advocate a postmodernist conceptualization of mental distress and well-being.Such approaches, along with cross-cultural and "heretical" psychologies centered on alternative cultural and ethnic and race-based identities and experiences, stand in contrast to the mainstream psychiatric communitys alleged avoidance of any explicit involvement with either morality or culture. In many countries there are attempts to challenge perceived prejudice against minority groups, including alleged institutional racism within psychiatric services. There are also ongoing attempts to improve professional cross cultural sensitivity. Laws and policies
Three-quarters of countries around the world have mental health legislation. Compulsory admission to mental health facilities (also known as involuntary commitment) is a controversial topic.
Because of the statistical probabilities that each sex inherits the syndrome, males are affected by Mohr-Tranebjærg more frequently than females are. Females who carry one copy of the TIMM8A gene (described in Genetics) are usually unaffected, however, may develop mild hearing loss and dystonia. Prognosis
Prognosis is poor. The combination of deafness and blindness severely affects communication, while the ongoing movement disorder results in an increasingly unstable gait. Life expectancy is highly variable and can range from death in the teenage years (after a rapidly progressive dystonia) to those that live into their 60s. History
This condition was first described in 1960. Epidemiology
Mohr-Tranebjᴂrg syndrome (MTS) prevalence is unknown. More than 90 cases (in 37 families) are known, but not all cases have been reported in the literature. See also
Mitochondrial disorders
TIMM13 and TIMM8A

References
External links

GeneReviews/NCBI/NIH/UW entry on Deafness–Dystonia–Optic Neuronopathy Syndrome
MTS — a page at NIH website