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The Age-distribution of Schizophrenia and Neurosis: Findings in a National Sample

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

E. H. Hare
Affiliation:
Bethlem Royal and The MaudsUy Hospitals, Denmark Hill, London, S.E.5
J. S. Price
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
E. T. O. Slater
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, S.E.5

Extract

The purpose of the present paper is to draw attention to a remarkable similarity in the age-incidence curves of schizophrenia and neurosis when the sexes are combined. Hare and Price (1969), in a study on the season of birth of schizophrenic patients, found that the age-distribution of cases of schizophrenia (I.C.D. 7th Revision nos. 300, 303) seen for the first time at the Bethlem-Maudsley Hospital during the years 1951–1963 was very similar to that of the cases of neurosis (I.C.D. nos. 310–18) seen there during the same period. However, these cases included out-patients as well as in-patients, were not necessarily first-ever attendances at a psychiatric clinic, and, because they had been referred to a teaching hospital which did not serve a particular geographical area, may have been a somewhat unrepresentative series. For these reasons, their findings (illustrated in Fig. 1 of their paper) might have been no more than a coincidence.

Type
Synopses of Papers Awaiting Publication
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971 

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References

Brown, G. W., and Birley, J. L. T. (1968). ‘Crises and life changes and the onset of schizophrenia.’ Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 9, 203–14.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H., and Price, J. S. (1969). ‘Mental disorder and season of birth: comparison of psychoses with neurosis.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 115, 533–40.Google Scholar
Ministry of Health (1969). Psychiatric Hospitals in England and Wales: In-patient Statistics from the Mental Health Enquiry for the Years 1964, 1965 and 1966 Statistical Report Series, No. 4. London: H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Shepherd, M., Brown, A. C., and Kalton, G. (1966). Psychiatric Illness in General Practice. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
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