Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T01:05:38.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The effect of sex, marriage and age at first admission on the hospitalization of schizophrenics during 2 years followings discharge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

David C. Watt*
Affiliation:
St John's Hospital, Stone, Aylesbury
Teresa K. Szulecka
Affiliation:
St John's Hospital, Stone, Aylesbury
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr David C. Watt, St John's Hospital, Stone, Aylesbury, Bucks.

Synopsis

Two hundred and eighty-two schizophrenics discharged from St John's Hospital, Stone, were followed-up. The reliability of the diagnosis was measured by the extent of agreement among the hospital clinicians. The number of readmissions and the time spent in hospital were ascertained and correlated with the sex, civil state and age at first admission of the subjects.

It was found that a higher proportion of males than of females was readmitted; that the proportion of single persons among male schizophrenics is higher than among comparable age groups in the general population; that single males are more frequently admitted than single females; that the peak age of first admission for males is 10 years earlier than for females and that men whose age at first admission is below the median are more frequently readmitted than those whose age at first admission is above it.

Women are more frequently married than men at the onset of schizophrenia, giving rise to the suggestion that marriage has a protective effect in schizophrenia. This hypothesis was not supported by our findings. The bearing of these findings on the course, genetics and marital handicap of schizophrenia is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Affleck, J. W., Burns, J. & Forrest, A. D. (1976). Long-term follow-up of schizophrenic patients in Edinburgh. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 53, 227237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Astrup, C., Fossum, A. & Holmboe, R. (1962). Prognosis in Functional Psychosis. C. C. Thomas: Springfield, Ill.Google Scholar
Bland, R. C., Parker, J. H. & Orn, H. (1976). Prognosis in schizophrenia: a ten-year follow-up of first admissions. Archives of General Psychiatry 33, 949954.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bleuler, E. (1950). Dementia Praecox (trans. Zinkin, J.). International University Press: New YorkGoogle Scholar
Brooke, E. M. (1963). A Cohort Study of Patients First Admitted to Mental Hospitals in 1954 and 1955. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. (1959). Social factors influencing length of hospital stay of schizophrenic patients. British Medical Journal ii, 13001302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. W. (1960). Length of hospital stay and schizo. phrenia: a review of statistical studies. Acta psychiatrica et neurologica scandinavica 35, 414430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. W., Bone, M., Dalison, B. & Wing, J. K. (1966). Schizophrenia and Social Care. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., Birley, J. L. T. & Wing, J. K. (1972). Influence of family life on the course of schizophrenic disorders: a replication. British Journal of Psychiatry 121, 241258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Census, England and Wales, 1971 (1974). County Report, Buckinghamshire. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1968). Weighted Kappa: nominal scale agreement with provision for scaled agreement or partial credit. Psychological Bulletin 70, 213220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooper, J. E., Kendell, R. E., Gurland, B. J., Sharpe, L., Copeland, J. R. M. & Simon, R. (1972). Psychiatric Diagnosis in New York and London. Maudsley Monograph no. 20. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Davison, B. C. C. (1973). Famitial idiopathic severe subnormality: the question of a contribution by X-linked genes. In Genetic Studies in Mental Subnormality pp. 160. British Journal of Psychiatry, Special Publication no. 8. Headley Brothers: Ashford, Kent.Google Scholar
Eaton, W. W. (1975). Marital status and schizophrenia. Acta psychiatrica scandinavica 52, 320329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Falloon, I., Watt, D. C. & Shepherd, M. (1978). The social outcome of patients in a trial of long-term continuation therapy in schizophrenia: pimozide vs. fluphenazine. Psychological Medicine 8, 265274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farina, A., Garmezy, N. & Barry, H. (1963). Relationship of marital status to incidence and prognosis of schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67, 624630.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forrest, A. & Affleck, J. (1975). New Perspectives in Schizophrenia. Churchill Livingstone: London.Google Scholar
Fuller, R. G. (1935). What happens to mental patients after discharge from hospital. Psychiatric Quarterly 9, 95104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerloff, W. (1937). Über Verlauf und Prognose der Schizophrenie. Archiv für Psychiatrie 106, 585598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, S. C., Scholer, N. R., Davidson, E. & Kayce, M. M. (1966). Sex and race differences in response to drug treatment among schizophrenics. Psychopharmacologia (Berlin) 9, 3147.Google Scholar
Guttmann, E., Mayer-Gross, W. & Slater, E. T. O. (1939). Short distance prognosis of schizophrenia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 2, 2534.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, M. (ed.) (1976). Fish's Schizophrenia. Wright: Bristol.Google Scholar
Holmboe, R. & Astrup, C. (1957). A follow-up study of 255 patients with acute schizophrenia or schizophreniform psychoses. Acta psychiatrica et neurologica scandinavica Suppl. 115Google Scholar
Huber, G., Gross, G. & Schüttler, R. (1975). A long-term follow-up study of schizophrenia: psychiatric course of illness and prognosis. Acta psychiatrica scandinavica 149, 5257.Google Scholar
Kay, D. W. K. (1972). Schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like states in the elderly. British Journal of Hospital Medicine Oct. 369376.Google Scholar
Koslacz, A. (1968). Budania katamnestyczne nad readaptacja chorych na wczesna schizofrenie. Polski Tygodnik Lekarski 23, 14741477.Google Scholar
Landis, C. & Page, J. D. (1938). Modern Society and Mental Diseases. Farrer and Rhinehart: New York.Google Scholar
Langfeldt, G. (1937). Prognosis in schizophrenia. Acta psychiatrica et neurologica Suppl. 13, 1228.Google Scholar
Lehrman, N. S. (1960). A state hospital population five years after admission: a yardstick for evaluative comparison of follow-up studies. Psychiatric Quarterly 34, 658668.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, A. J. (1958). Fertility in mental illness. Eugenics Review 50, 91106. Reprinted in Lewis A. (1967). Inquiries in Psychiatry. Routledge and Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Lo, W. H. & Lo, T. (1977). A ten-year follow-up study of Chinese schizophrenics in Hong Kong. British Journal of Psychiatry 131, 6366.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lugaro, E. (1904). L'ipochondria persecutoria: una forma tardiva della D. paranoide. Rivisla di Patologia Nervosa e Mentale (Firenze) 9 (3), 105112.Google Scholar
Malamud, W. & Render, N. (1939). Course and prognosis in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 95, 10391057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malzberg, B., (1935). A statistical study of age in relation to mental disease. Mental Hygiene 19, 449477.Google Scholar
Malzberg, B. (1940). Social and Biological Aspects of Mental Disease. State Hospitals Press: New York.Google Scholar
Malzberg, B. (1965). Marital Status and the Incidence of Mental Disease. Research Founadtion for Mental Hygiene: Albany, N.Y.Google Scholar
Mauz, F. (1930). Die Prognostik der endogen Psychosen. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Mayer-Gross, W., Slater, E. & Roth, M. (1969). Clinical Psychiatry. Ballière, Tindall and Cassell: London.Google Scholar
Norris, V. (1956). A statistical study of the influence of marriage on the hospital care of the mentally sick. Journal of Mental Science 102, 467486.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norris, V. (1959). Mental Illness in London. Chapman and Hall: London.Google Scholar
Nystrup, J. (1976). A hospital population of schizophrenics undergoing change. Acta psychiatrica scandinavica 53, 211226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oedegaard, O. (1946). Marriage and mental disease: a study in social psychopathology. Journal of Mental Science 92, 3559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penrose, L. S. (1942). Mental disease and natural selection. American Journal of Mental Deficiency 46, 453458.Google Scholar
Registrar-General (1955). Statistical Review of England and Wales. Supplement on General Morbidity, Cancer and Mental Health. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Rennie, T. A. C. (1939). Follow-up study of 500 patients with schizophrenia admitted to the hospital from 1913–1923. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 42, 877891.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rennie, T. A. C. (1941). Analysis of one hundred cases of schizophrenia with recovery. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 46, 197229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, D. (1961). Sex distribution and the severity of illness among samples of schizophrenic twins. Journal of Psychiatric Research 1, 2636.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rupp, C. & Fletcher, E. K. (1940). A five to ten year follow-up study of 641 schizophrenic cases. American Journal of Psychiatry 96, 877888.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, M. (1957). A Study of the Major Psychoses in an English County. Chapman and Hall: London.Google Scholar
Shepherd, M. & Watt, D. C. (1974). Long-term treatment with neuroleptics in the community: advantages and disadvantages. In Neuropharmocology (ed. Boissier, J. R., Hippins, H. and Pichot, P.), pp. 379382. Excerpta Medica Congress Series No. 359. Excerpta Medica: Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Stabenau, J. R. & Pollin, W. (1967). Early characteristics of monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 17, 723734.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stalker, H. (1939). The prognosis in schizophrenia. Journal of Mental Science 85, 12241240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, J. H., Astrup, C. & Mangrum, J. C. (1966). Prognostic factors in recovered and deteriorated schizophrenics. American Journal of Psychiatry 122, 11161121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stevens, B. C. (1969). Marriage and Fertility of Women Suffering from Schizophrenia or Affective Disorders. Maudsley Monograph no. 19. Oxford University Press: London.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, G. & Turner, B. (1974). X-linked mental retardation. Journal of Medical Genetics 11, 109113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, G., Turner, B. & Collins, E. (1971). X-linked mental retardation without physical abnormality: Renpenning's syndrome. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 13, 7178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watt, D. C. & Buglass, D. (1966). The effect of clinical and social factors on the discharge of chronic psychiatric patients. Social Psychiatry 1, 5763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar