Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T06:05:55.370Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Spatial Distribution of Depressive Illness in Plymouth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

K. G. Dean  and
H. D. James
K. G. Dean
Affiliation:
College of St Mark and St John, Derriford Road, Plymouth, Devon PL6 8BH
H. D. James
Affiliation:
Moorhaven Hospital, Bittaford, Ivybridge, South Devon PL21 0EX
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Diagnostic and demographic data were collected from all 2,298 psychiatric hospital admissions for affective illnesses from private households in the City of Plymouth for the six-year period 1970–1975 inclusive. Intercorrelations of diagnostic subtypes were performed, together with a multiple regression analysis against spatial and ecological data from the 1971 Census. Rate differences were related to the geographic structure of Plymouth. With psychotic illnesses, ecological correlations were low for male and female first admissions and for male readmissions. However, important correlations relating to socio-economic status, housing tenure and structure, population instability, and other sociodemographic features emerged in varying degrees of specificity for reactive and neurotic illness in males, and for all readmissions in females, largely irrespective of diagnostic subtype. Explanations for the processes underlying these patterns are offered in terms of population structure, particularly the differing vulnerability of age and marital status groups, the referral and diagnostic process, social and physical stresses in the lower socioeconomic groups, and urban drift.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 136 , Issue 2 , February 1980 , pp. 167 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1980 

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

Bagley, C., Jacobson, S. & Palmer, C. (1973) Social structure, and the ecological distribution of mental illness, suicide, and delinquency. Psychological Medicine, 3, 177–87.Google Scholar
Bain, S. M. (1973) The geographical distribution of psychiatric disorders in the North East Region of Scotland. Geographica Medica, 1, 84–108.Google Scholar
Bain, S. M. (1974) A geographer's approach in the epidemiology of psychiatric disorder. Journal of Biosocial Science, 6, 195–220.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., Ni Bhrolchain, M. & Harris, T. (1975) Social class and psychiatric disturbance among women in an urban population. Sociology, 9, 225–54.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978) Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Castle, I. M. & Gittus, E. (1957) The distribution of social defects in Liverpool. Sociological Reviews, 55, 43–64.Google Scholar
Giggs, J. A. (1973) The distribution of schizophrenics in Nottingham. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 59, 55–76.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H. (1956a) Mental illness and social conditions in Bristol. Journal of Mental Science, 102, 349–57.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H. (1956b) Family setting and the urban distribution of schizophrenia. Journal of Mental Science, 102, 753–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moss, P. & Plewis, I. (1977) Mental distress in mothers of pre-school children in Inner London. Psychological Medicine, 7, 641–52.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S. (1978) Contribution of life events to causation of psychiatric illness. Psychological Medicine, 8, 245–53.Google Scholar
Robertson, N. C. (1974) The relationship between marital status and the risk of psychiatric referral. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 191–202.Google Scholar
Robinson, W. S. (1950) Ecological correlation and the behaviour of individuals. American Sociological Review, 15, 351–7.Google Scholar
Robson, B. T. (1969) Urban Analysis: A study of City Structure. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Roy, A. (1978) Vulnerability factors and depression in women. British Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 106–10.Google Scholar
Timms, D. W. G. (1965) The spatial distribution of social deviants in Luton, England. Australia and Mew Zealand Journal of Sociology, 1, 38–52.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.