Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:23:46.396Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mental illness and the late Victorians: a study of patients admitted to three asylums in York, 1880–1884

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Edward B. Renvoize  and
Allan W. Beveridge
Edward B. Renvoize*
Affiliation:
Bootham Park Hospital, York
Allan W. Beveridge
Affiliation:
Bootham Park Hospital, York
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Edward B. Renvoize, Department of Community Medicine, Leeds General Infirmary, Great George Street, Leeds LSI 3EX.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

The case histories of the patients newly admitted to the Retreat Asylum in York between 1880–1884 were examined. Most patients were aged under 50 years, single and non-Quaker, and a majority satisfied the Research Diagnostic Criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia or affective disorder. It was found that 72·9% of the patients were deluded, the most common delusions being of persecution, grandeur and guilt; in 34·9% of the deluded patients, the delusion had a religious content. Suicidal ideation was recorded in the case records of 31·4% of the patients. Drug therapy was commonly prescribed, a history of assault on other patients or asylum staff was recorded in 38·1% of the patients, and 11% of patients were force fed at some stage during their illness. Within a year of admission 49·1% of the patients were discharged, the prognosis being better for patients with an affective illness than for schizophrenia, but 31·4% remained in the asylum for five or more years.

The characteristics, alleged causes of mental illness, and treatment and outcome of the Retreat patients were compared with those of patients admitted during the same period to the two other York asylums which served different socio-economic groups of the population. Mortality rates were higher in the asylum admitting mainly pauper patients, and possible reasons for this are explored.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , February 1989 , pp. 19 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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

Briggs, A. (1985). A Social History of England. Penguin Books Ltd: Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Bucknill, J. C. & Tuke, D. H. (1879). A Manual of Psychological Medicine. J. & A. Churchill: London.Google Scholar
DHSS, (1985). In-patient statistics from the Mental Health Enquiry for England, 1982. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Digby, A. (1985). Madness, Morality and Medicine: a Study of the York Retreat, 1796–1914. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Digby, A. (1986). From York Lunatic Asylum to Bootham Park Hospital. Borthwick Paper No. 69. University of York: York.Google Scholar
Enoch, M. D., Trethowan, W. H. & Barker, J. C. (1967). Some Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes. John Wright: Bristol.Google Scholar
Erikson, C. (1959). British Industrialists: Steel and Hosiery 1850–1950 Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, E. H. (1959). The origin and spread of dementia paralytica. Journal of Mental Science 105, 594–626.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hare, E. H. (1962). Masturbatory insanity: the history of an idea. Journal of Mental Science 108, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hare, E. (1983). Was insanity on the increase. British Journal of Psychiatry 142, 439–455.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Houghton, W. E. (1957). The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830–1870. Yale University Press: New Haven.Google Scholar
Isichei, E. (1970). Victorian Quakers. Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
Klaf, F. S. & Hamilton, J. G. (1961). Schizophrenia – a hundred years ago and today. Journal of Mental Science 107, 819–827.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCandless, P. (1981). Liberty and lunacy: the Victorians and wrongful confinement. In Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen. The Social History of Psychiatry in the Victorian Era (ed. Scull, A.), pp. 339–362. The Athlone Press: London.Google Scholar
Maudsley, H. (1868). Illustrations of a variety of insanity. Journal of Mental Science 14, 149–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scull, A. T. (1979). Museums of Madness. Allen Lane: London.Google Scholar
Showalter, E. (1981). Victorian women and insanity. In Madhouses, Mad-Doctors and Madmen. The Social History of Psychiatry in the Victorian era (ed. Scull, A.), pp. 313–336. The Athlone Press: London.Google Scholar
Skae, D. (1873). The Morisonian Lectures on Insanity for 1873. Journal of Mental Science 19, 340–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skae, D. (1874). The Morisonian Lectures on Insanity for 1873. Journal of Mental Science 19, 491–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978). Research Diagnostic Criteria for a Selected Group of Functional Disorders, 3rd edn.State Psychiatric Institute: New York.Google Scholar
Tuke, D. H. (1892). Dictionary of Psychological Medicine (ed. Tuke, D. H.). J. & A. Churchill: London.Google Scholar