Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:32:11.044Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prevalence Studies in Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

E. Fuller Torrey
E. Fuller Torrey*
Affiliation:
Twin Studies Unit, William A. White Division, Saint Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington DC 20032, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Over 70 prevalence studies of schizophrenia published since 1948 are reviewed. Despite problems of method, the studies suggest that there may be significant differences in prevalence among different populations and that prevalence may change over time. Further research is needed on how much differences in diagnosis or the course of schizophrenia contribute to the variable prevalence rates. The paper suggests the following as areas for additional enquiry: a possible north-south gradient, special populations (e.g. American Hutterites, northern Swedes, western Irish, castes in India) and ongoing case registers in areas of suspected high and low prevalence.

Type
Review Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 150 , Issue 5 , May 1987 , pp. 598 - 608
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

Ahmed, A. H. (1979) Consanguinity and schizophrenia in Sudan. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 635–636.Google Scholar
Anderson, T. (1975) Physical and mental illness in a Lapp and Norwegian population. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (suppl.) 263, 47–56.Google Scholar
Babigian, H. M. (1985) Schizophrenia epidemiology. In Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry IV (eds H. I. Kaplan & B. J. Saddock). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar
Bash, K. W. & Bash-Liechti, J. (1974) Studies on the epidemiology of neuropsychiatric disorder among the population of the city of Shiraz, Iran. Social Psychiatry, 9, 163–171.Google Scholar
Ben-Tovim, D. I. & Cushnie, J. M. (1986) The prevalence of schizophrenia in a remote area of Botswana. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 576–580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjarnar, E., Reppesgaard, H., Astrup, C. (1975) Psychiatric morbidity in Berlevag. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (suppl.) 262, 60–67.Google Scholar
Blazer, D., George, L. K., Landerman, R., Pennybacker, M., Melville, M. L., Woodbury, M., Manton, K. G., Jordan, K., Locke, B. (1985) Psychiatric disorders: A rural /urban comparison. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 651–656.Google Scholar
Book, J. A. (1953) A genetic and neuropsychiatric investigation of a North-Swedish population. Acta Genetica et Statistica Medico, 4, 1–100.Google Scholar
Book, J. A., Wetterberg, L. & Modrzewska, K. (1978) Schizophrenia in a North Swedish geographical isolate 1900–1977: epidemiology, genetics and bio-chemistry. Clinical Genetics, 14, 373–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, J. H., Pulver, A. E. & Stewart, W. (1986) Season of birth: schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 12, 173–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradbury, J. N. & Miller, G. A. (1985) Season of birth in schizophrenia: A review of evidence, methodology, and aetiology. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 569–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bremer, J. (1951) A social psychiatric investigation of a small community in northern Norway. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica (suppl.) 62, 1–166.Google Scholar
Carstairs, G. M. & Kapur, R. L. (1976) The Great Universe of Kota: A Study of Stress, Change, and Mental Disorder in an Indian Village. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, B. (1978) Epidemiology. In Schizophrenia: Towards a New Synthesis (ed. J. K. Wing). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Crocetti, G. M., Lemkau, P. V., Kulcar, Z. & Kesic, B. (1971) Selected aspects of the epidemiology of psychoses in Croatia, Yugoslavia: The cluster sample and the results of the pilot survey. American Journal of Epidemiology, 94, 126–134.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dale, P. W. (1981) Prevalence of schizophrenia in the Pacific Island populations of Micronesia. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 16, 103–111.Google Scholar
Dhunjibhoy, J. E. (1930) A brief resume of the types of insanity commonly met with in India with a full description of ‘Indian Hemp Insanity’ peculiar to the country. Journal of Mental Science, 76, 254–264.Google Scholar
Dilling, H. & Weyerer, S. (1984) Prevalence of mental disorders in the small-town, rural region of Traunstein (Upper Bavaria). Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 69, 60–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dohan, F. C., Harper, E. H., Clark, M. H., Rodrigue, R. & Zigas, V. (1983) Where is schizophrenia rare? Lancet, 2, 101.Google Scholar
Dube, K. C. (1970) A study of prevalence and biosocial variables in mental illness in a rural and an urban community in Uttar Pradish, India. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 46, 327–359.Google Scholar
Dohan, F. C. & Kumar, N. (1972) An epidemiological study of schizophrenia. Journal of Biosocial Science, 4, 187–195.Google Scholar
Eagles, J. M. & Whalley, L. J. (1985) Decline in the diagnosis of schizophrenia among first admissions to Scottish mental hospitals from 1969–1978. British Journal of Psychiatry, 40, 151–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eastwell, H. (1975) Schizophrenic typology in Aboriginal Australia.Google Scholar
Mimeo Eaton, J. W. & Weil, R. J. (1955) Culture and Mental Disorders: A Comparative Study of the Hutterites and Other Populations. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press.Google Scholar
Eaton, W. W. (1985) Epidemiology of schizophrenia. Epidemiologic Reviews, 7, 105–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Egeland, J. A. & Hostetter, A. M. (1983) Amish study, I: Affective disorders among the Amish, 1976–1980. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 56–61.Google Scholar
Elnagar, M. N., Maitra, P. & Rao, M. N. (1971) Mental health in an Indian rural community. British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 499–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esquirol, J. E. (1845) Mental maladies quoted in A Documentary History of Psychiatry by C. E. Goshen (1967). New York: Philosophical Library.Google Scholar
Essen-Moller, E. (1956) Individual traits and morbidity in a Swedish rural population. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica (suppl.) 100, 1–160.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. & Mayer, D. Y. (1969) Psychosis and social change among the Tallensi of Northern Ghana. In Psychiatry in a Changing Society (eds S. H. Foulkes & G. S. Prince). London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Freeman, H. & Alpert, M. (1986) Prevalence of schizophrenia in an urban population. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 603–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fugelli, P. (1975) Mental health and living conditions in a fishing community in northern Norway. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (suppl.) 263, 39–42.Google Scholar
Giel, R. & Van Luijk, J. N. (1969a) Psychiatric morbidity in a small Ethiopian town. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 149–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giel, R. & Van Luijk, J. N. (1969b) Psychiatric morbidity in a rural village in South-Western Ethiopia. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 16, 63–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafner, H. & Heiden, W. van dcr (1986) The contribution of European case registers to research on schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 12, 26–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hafner, H. & Klug, J. (1980) First evaluation of the Mannheim community mental health service. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 62 (suppl. 285), 68–77.Google Scholar
Hagnell, O. (1966) A Prospective Study of the Incidence of Mental Disorder. Lund: Norstedts-Bonniers.Google Scholar
Halldin, J. (1984) Prevalence of mental disorder in an urban population in central Sweden. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 69, 503–518.Google Scholar
Hare, E. (1983) Was insanity on the increase? British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 439–455.Google Scholar
Hollingshead, A. B. & Redlich, F. C. (1958) Social Class and Mental Illness. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Jablensky, A. (1986) Epidemiology of schizophrenia: A European perspective. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 12, 52–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jablensky, A. & Sartorius, N. (1975) Culture and schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 5, 113–124.Google Scholar
Jayasundera, M. G. (1969) Mental health surveys in Ceylon. In Mental Health Research in Asia and the Pacific (eds W. Caudill & T.-Y. Lin). Honolulu: East-West Center Press.Google Scholar
Jones, I. H. & Horne, D. J. (1973) Psychiatric disorders among Aborigines of the Western Desert. Social Science and Medicine, 7, 219–228.Google Scholar
Joyce, P. R. (1987) Changing trends in first admissions and readmissions for mania and schizophrenia in New Zealand, 1974 to 1984. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (in press).Google Scholar
Kapur, R. L. (1975) An illustrative presentation of a population survey of mental illness in South India. In Mental Health Services in Developing Countries (eds T. A. Baasher et at). Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Kato, M. (1969) Psychiatric epidemiological surveys in Japan. In Mental Health Research in Asia and the Pacific (eds W. Caudill & T.-Y. Lin). Honolulu: East-West Center Press.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1919) Dementia Praecox and Paraphrenia. Edinburgh: Livingstone.Google Scholar
Kulcar, Z., Crocetti, G. M., Lemkou, P. V. & Kesic, B. (1971) Selected aspects of the epidemiology of psychoses in Croatia, Yugoslavia: pilot study of communities. American Journal of Epidemiology, 94, 118–125.Google Scholar
Kurtzke, J. F. (1975) A reassessment of the distribution of multiple sclerosis. Acta Neurological Scandinavica, 51, 110–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Larrsson, T. & Sjogren, T. (1954) A methodological, psychiatric and statistical study of a large Swedish rural population. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica (suppl.) 89, 1–250.Google Scholar
Leff, J. (1981) Psychiatry Around the Globe: A Transcultural View. New York: Marcel Dekker.Google Scholar
Lehtinen, V. & Vaisanen, E. (1981) Epidemiology of psychiatric disorders in Finland: A five-year follow-up. Social Psychiatry, 16, 171–180.Google Scholar
Lemkau, P. V., Tietze, C. & Cooper, M. (1942) Mental hygiene problems in an urban district. Mental Hygiene, 25, 624–646.Google Scholar
Lemkau, P. V., Tietze, C. & Cooper, M. (1943) Mental hygiene problems in an urban district: second paper. Mental Hygiene, 26, 100–119.Google Scholar
Lin, T.-Y. (1953) A study of the incidence of mental disorder in Chinese and other cultures. Psychiatry, 16, 313–336.Google Scholar
Lin, T.-Y., Rin, H., Yeh, E. K., Hsu, C. C. & Chu, H. M. (1969) Mental disorders in Taiwan fifteen years later. In Mental Health Research in Asia and the Pacific (eds W. Vaudill & T.-Y. Lin). Honolulu: East-West Center Press.Google Scholar
Marble, A., Krall, L. P., Bradley, R. F., Christlieb, A. R. & Soeldner, J. S., (eds) (1975) Joslin's Diabetes Mellitus. Philadelphia: Lea and Febiger.Google Scholar
Mayer-Gross, W. (1948) Mental health survey in a rural area. Eugenics Review, 40, 140–148.Google ScholarPubMed
Mishler, E. G. & Scotch, N. A. (1963) Sociocultural factors in the epidemiology of schizophrenia: A review. Psychiatry, 26, 315–351.Google Scholar
Munk-Jorgensen, P. (1986) Decreasing first-admission rates of schizophrenia among males in Denmark from 1970 to 1984. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 73, 645–650.Google Scholar
Munk-Jorgensen, P. & Jorgensen, P. C. (1986) Decreasing rates of first admission diagnoses of schizophrenia among females in Denmark 1970–1984. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 74, 379–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. (1964) Community management of rural mental patients. Final report of USPHS Mental Health Grant. Mimeo.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. (1968) Cultural factors in the genesis of schizophrenia. In The Transmission of Schizophrenia (eds D. Rosenthal & S. S. Kety). New York: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. (1972) The schizophrenia-evoking rule of complex social demands. In Genetic Factors in Schizophrenia (ed. A. R. Kaplan). Springfield, Illinois: C. C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. (1975) Alcoholism and schizophrenia in the Irish: A review. Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review, 12, 116–139.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. (1984) Diseases of civilization? Psychological Medicine, 14, 487–490.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. & Raman, A. C. (1971) The chronicity of schizophrenia in indigenous tropical peoples. British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 489–497.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. & Taumoepeau, B. M. (1980) Traditionalism and mental health in the South Pacific: a re-examination of an old hypothesis. Psychological Medicine, 10, 1–12.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. & Vega, G. (1982) Schizophrenia and religious affiliation in Northern Ireland. Psychological Medicine, 12, 595–605.Google Scholar
Myers, J. K., Weissman, M. M., Tischler, G. L., Holzer, C. E., Leaf, P. J., Orvaschel, H., Anthony, J. C., Boyd, J. H., Burke, J. D., Kramer, M. & Stoltzman, R. (1984) Six-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders in three communities. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 959–967.Google Scholar
Nandi, D. N., Ajmany, S., Ganguli, H., Banerjee, G., Boral, G. C., Ghosh, A. & Sarkar, S. (1975) Psychiatric disorders in a rural community in West Bengal: An epidemiological study. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 17, 87–99.Google Scholar
Nandi, D. N., Banerjee, G., Boral, G. C., Ganguli, H., Ajmany, S., Ghosh, A. & Sarkar, S. (1979) Socio-economic status and prevalence of mental disorders in certain rural communities in India. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 59, 276–293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nandi, D. N., Mukherjee, S. P., Boral, G. C., Banerjee, G., Ghosh, A., Sarkar, S. & Ajmany, S. (1980) Socio-economic status and mental morbidity in certain tribes and castes in India: A cross-cultural study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 73–85.Google Scholar
Nielsen, J. (1976) The Samso project from 1967 to 1974. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 54, 198–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, J. & Nielsen, J. A. (1977) A census study of mental illness in Samso. Psychological Medicine, 7, 491–503.Google Scholar
Odegard, O. (1971) Hospitalized psychosis in Norway: time trends 1926–1965. Social Psychiatry, 6, 54–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rao, S. (1966) Caste and mental disorders in Bihar. American Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 1045–1055.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rin, H. & Lin, T.-Y. (1962) Mental illness among Formosan Aborigines as compared with the Chinese in Taiwan. Journal of Mental Science, 108, 134–146.Google Scholar
Roy, C., Choudhuri, A. & Irvine, D. (1970) The prevalence of mental disorders among Saskatchewan Indians. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1, 383–392.Google Scholar
Sartorius, N., Jablensky, A. & Shapiro, R. (1978) Cross-cultural differences in the short-term prognosis of schizophrenic psychoses. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 4, 102–113.Google Scholar
Sartorius, N., Jablensky, A., Korten, A., Ernberg, G., Anker, M., Cooper, J. E. & Day, R. (1986) Early manifestations and first-contact incidence of schizophrenia in different cultures. Psychological Medicine, 16, 909–928.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sauna, V. D. (1969) Socio-cultural aspects. In The Schizophrenic Syndrome (eds L. Bellak & L. Loeb). New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Saxena, B. M., Bhaskaran, K. & Anath, J. V. (1972) Social class and schizophrenia: A study based on the caste system in India. Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review, 9, 130–133.Google Scholar
Sethi, B. B., Gupta, S. C., Mahendru, R. K. & Kumari, P. (1974) Mental health and urban life: A study of 850 families. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 243–247.Google Scholar
Shaw, W. S. (1930) Some observations on the etiology of dementia praecox. Journal of Mental Science, 76, 505–511.Google Scholar
Shepherd, M. (1957) A Study of the Major Psychoses in an English County. Maudsley Monographs, No. 3. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Sikanertey, T. & Eaton, W. W. (1984) Prevalence of schizophrenia in the Labadi District of Ghana. British Journal of Psychiatry, 69, 156–161.Google Scholar
Sjogren, T. (1948) Genetic-statistical and psychiatric investigations of a West Swedish population. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica (suppl.) 52.Google Scholar
Stromgren, E. (1948) Social surveys. Journal of Mental Science, 94, 266–276.Google Scholar
Thacore, V. R., Gupta, S. C. & Suraiya, M. (1975) Psychiatric morbidity in a North Indian community. British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 364–369.Google Scholar
Thom, T. J., Epstein, F. H., Feldman, J. J. & Leaverton, P. E. (1985) Trends in total mortality and mortality from heart disease in 26 countries from 1950 to 1978. International Journal of Epidemiology, 14, 510–520.Google Scholar
Torrey, E. F. (1980) Schizophrenia and Civilization. New York: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Torrey, E. & Kaufmann, C. A. (1986) Schizophrenia and neuroviruses. In The Neurology of Schizophrenia (eds H. A. Nasrallah & D. R. Weinberger). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Torrey, E., McGuire, M., O'Hare, A., Walsh, D. & Spellman, M. P. (1984) Endemic psychosis in Western Ireland. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 966–969.Google Scholar
Utsinger, P. D., Zvaifler, N. J. & Ehrlich, G. E., (eds) (1985) Rheumatoid Arthritis. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott.Google Scholar
Vaisanen, E. (1975) Psychiatric disorders in Finland. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (suppl.) 263, 22–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Varma, V. K., Wig, N. N., Srinivsa Murthy, R. & Misra, A. K. (1980) Socio-demographic correlates of schizophrenia, affective psychoses and neuroses in a clinic in India. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 61, 404–412.Google Scholar
Walsh, D., O'Hare, A., Black, B., Halpenny, J. V. & O'Brien, P. F. (1980) The treated prevalence of mental illness in the Republic of Ireland: The three county case register study. Psychological Medicine, 10, 465–470.Google Scholar
Waxler, N. E. (1979) Is outcome for schizophrenia better in nonindustrial societies? The case of Sri Lanka. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 167, 144–158.Google Scholar
White, W. H. (1903) The geographical distribution of insanity in the United States. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 30, 257–279.Google Scholar
Wijesinghe, C. P., Dissanayake, S. A. W. & Dassanayake, P. V. L. N. (1978) Survey of psychiatric morbidity in a semi-urban population in Sri Lanka. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 58, 413–441.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. & Fryers, T. (1976) Statistics from the Camberwell and Satford Psychiatric Registers, 1964–1974. London: Institute of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Wing, L., Wing, J. K., Hailey, A., Bahn, A. K. & Smith, H. E. (1967) The use of psychiatric services in three urban areas: An international case register study. Social Psychiatry, 2, 158–167.Google Scholar
Yoo, P. S. (1961) Mental disorders in Korean rural communities. Proceedings of the Third World Congress of Psychiatry. Montreal: McGill University Press.Google Scholar
Yursinova, M. S. (1982) Some results of epidemiological research on schizophrenia in Samarkand. Zhurnal Nevropathoiogii I Psikhiatrii Imeni S.S. Korsalova, 82, 93–98.Google Scholar
Zharikov, N. M. (1968) Epidemiological study of mental illness in the U.S.S.R. Social Psychiatry, 3, 135–138.Google Scholar
Zimmerman-Tansella, C., Burti, L., Faccincani, C., Garzotto, N., Siciliani, O. and Tansella, M. (1985) Bringing into action the psychiatric reform in South-Verona: A five year experience. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (suppl.) 316, 71–86.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.