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Did the Great Irish Famine increase schizophrenia?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Dermot Walsh
Dermot Walsh*
Affiliation:
Health Research Board, Knockmaun House, Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2
*
E-mail [email protected]
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Abstract

Background: Evidence from regions where there have been severe dietary restriction suggests that individuals in utero during periods of starvation may subsequently be at increased risk of schizophrenia. Because Ireland was the location of a major nineteenth century famine an attempt has been made to determine whether any such evidence for famine/schizophrenia association can be found.

Method: The data used derive mainly from the Annual Reports on the District, Criminal and Private Lunatic Asylums supplied by the Inspectors of Lunacy in Ireland for the relevant years. Nineteenth century diagnostic labels have been adjusted to conform to schizophrenia as currently understood. Evidence relating to a possible schizophrenia increase in famine-related emigrants is examined.

Results: There was an increase in first admission rates for schizophrenia of 85.7% from 1860 to 1875. Admissions for other disorders, chiefly melancholia, also increased. Similar admission increases were evident in other jurisdictions over the same period. Data relating to the mental health of famine – migrating Irish are sparse and of difficult interpretation.

Conclusion: The evidence from available data sources attempting to link the Irish famines of the 1840s with a subsequent increase in the incidence of schizophrenia is equivocal and inconclusive.

Keywords

SchizophreniaFamine19th Century Ireland
Type
Original Paper
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , 2012 , pp. 7 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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