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Life events and psychiatric disorders1 Part 2: nature of causal link

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

G. W. Brown ,
T. O. Harris  and
J. Peto
G. W. Brown
Affiliation:
From the Department of Sociology, Bedford College, University of London
T. O. Harris
Affiliation:
From the Department of Sociology, Bedford College, University of London
J. Peto
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
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Synopsis

Methods are first described for testing for and measuring the proportion involved in the causal link between life-events and psychiatric disorders; the paper then deals with the nature of the causal effect itself. A method is described (and developed mathematically in an appendix) which enables a choice to be made between a triggering effect in which events are seen as precipitating an illness that would probably have occurred before long for other reasons, and a formative effect in which life-events either substantially advance onset in time, or bring it about altogether. The method is used to demonstrate the presence of a formative effect in depressive and a triggering effect in schizophrenic disorders.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , May 1973 , pp. 159 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

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