La psychiatrie outre-mer

Abstract

The French rate of good mental health differs depending on the territory. Two markers, namely the frequency of suicide occurrence and the level of use of toxic substances, allow us to present a comparison between mainland France and French Guiana. This territory is one of the five French overseas departments and presents many particularities (90% covered in primary forest, presence of original peoples, etc.). These differences partly explain the particularly contradictory situation of mental health care: if the number of suicides and the number of alcohol dependence situations is lower than in mainland France, some populations concentrate the risks and present an impressive excess mortality.