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Prevalence of mental disorders in Australia: some evidence from the Hospital Morbidity Collection in New South Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Farhat Yusuf  and
M. Hamid Sheikh
Farhat Yusuf
Affiliation:
School of Economic and Financial Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
M. Hamid Sheikh
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
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Summary

This study examines data from 47,238 episodes of hospitalization in New South Wales, Australia, pertaining to the patients suffering from mental disorders, i.e. those patients with a principal diagnosis coded from 290 to 315 inclusive, according to the 8th revision of the International Classification of Diseases.

An overall prevalence of nine episodes of hospitalization due to mental disorders was found per 1000 population per annum. Major disease categories were neuroses and alcoholism (each accounting for 21% of the total episodes) followed by schizophrenia (16%) and affective psychosis (11%); there were substantial differences by age, sex, marital status and ethnic origin.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , July 1984 , pp. 357 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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