In countries such as the United States where there exists a predominantly biomedical understanding of the body, the mind and in turn, mental health, subjects were found to report their hallucinations as having ‘violent content’ and self-describing as ‘crazy’. This lived experience is at odds with the lived experience of subjects in Accra, Ghana, who describe the voices they hear as having ‘spiritual meaning’ and are often reported as positive in nature; or subjects in Chennai, India, who describe their hallucinations as kin, family members or close friends, and offering guidance.These differences are attributed to ‘social kindling’ or how ones social context shapes how an individual interprets and experiences sensations such as hallucinations. This concept aligns with pre-existing cognitive theory such as reality modelling and is supported by recent research that demonstrates that individuals with psychosis can be taught to attend to their hallucinations differently, which in turn alters the hallucinations themselves. Such research creates pathways for social or community-based treatment, such as reality monitoring, for individuals with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, providing alternatives to, or supplementing traditional pharmacologic management. Cross-cultural studies explore the way in which psychosis varies in different cultures, countries and religions. The cultural differences are based on the individual or shared illness narratives surrounding cultural meanings of illness experience. In countries such as India, Cambodia and Muslim majority countries, they each share alternative epistemologies. These are known as knowledge systems that focus on the connections between mind, body, culture, nature, and society.
Esterified estrogens (EEs), sold under the brand names Estratab and Menest among others, is an estrogen medication which is used hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms and low sex hormone levels in women, to treat breast cancer in both women and men, and to treat prostate cancer in men. It is formulated alone or in combination with methyltestosterone. It is taken by mouth.Side effects of EEs include nausea, breast tension, edema, and breakthrough bleeding among others. It is an estrogen, or an agonist of the estrogen receptors, the biological target of estrogens like estradiol. EEs are a prodrug mainly of estradiol and to a lesser extent of equilin.EEs were introduced for medical use by 1970. They are available in only a few countries, such as Chile and the United States. They have also been marketed in Argentina and Switzerland in the past. Medical uses
EEs are used in hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms, female hypogonadism, ovariectomy, and primary ovarian failure and in the treatment of breast cancer and prostate cancer. Available forms
EEs are available in the form of 0.3 mg, 0.625 mg, 1.25 mg, and 2.5 mg oral tablets. Estratest is a combination formulation of 1.25 mg EEs with 2.5 mg methyltestosterone. Side effects
Pharmacology
EEs consist primarily of sodium estrone sulfate and sodium equilin sulfate, and are very similar to conjugated estrogens (CEEs, conjugated equine estrogens; brand name Premarin).