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A Century of Delusions in South West Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

A. D. T. Robinson
A. D. T. Robinson*
Affiliation:
MRC Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
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Abstract

Two groups of patients admitted to psychiatric hospital in Dumfries were studied, drawn from the periods 1880–1889 and 1970–1979. Feighner criteria were applied to make three diagnostic categories – depression, mania and schizophrenia – and the occurrence and content of delusions were noted for each. A significant decline in the prevalence of delusional depressive illness was found between the two periods, and a similar trend was noted for delusional manic illness. In contrast, the prevalence of delusional schizophrenic illness was stable. This decline is taken to reflect a change in the phenomenology of affective illness since last century in South West Scotland. The content of delusions is also discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 153 , Issue 2 , August 1988 , pp. 163 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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