Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:24:43.793Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Symptoms and Social Adjustment in Jewish Depressives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R. A. Ball*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, St Bartholomew's Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1
A. W. Clare
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, St Bartholomew's Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1
*
Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ

Abstract

In 25 Jewish and 26 non-Jewish depressives resident in Hackney, the PSE revealed that ‘hypochondriasis' and ‘tension’ were more common in the Jewish group, and special features of depression, containing symptoms connected with guilt, was less common. These differences could not be explained by variation in severity of illness as both groups had similar scores on the HRSD. The ‘social maladjustment’ scores were similar, very probably reflecting an elderly, deprived, inner-city population.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

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

Argyle, M. (1958) Religious Behaviour. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Bagadia, V. N., Jesta, D. V., Dave, K. P., et al (1977) A prospective epidemiological study of 233 cases of depression. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 12, 4446.Google Scholar
Barrabee, P. & Van Merino, O. (1955) Ethnic variations in mental stress in families with psychotic children. In Mental Health and Mental Disorder: A Sociological Approach (ed. Rose, A. M.). New York: Horton.Google Scholar
Bart, P. (1977) Portnoy's Mother's Complaint: Depression in Middle Aged Women (ed. Koltun, E.). New York: Schocken.Google Scholar
Binite, A. (1975) A factor analytic study of depression across culture. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 559563.Google Scholar
Clare, A. W. & Cairnes, V. E. (1978) Design, development and use of a standardised interview to assess social maladjustment and dysfunction in community studies. Psychological Medicine, 8, 589604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooklin, R., Ravindran, A. & Carney, M. W. (1983) Patterns of mental disorder in Jewish and non-Jewish admissions to a district general hospital psychiatric unit: is manic depressive psychosis a typically Jewish disorder? Psychological Medicine, 13, 209212.Google Scholar
Croog, S. H. (1961) Ethnic origins, educational level and responses to health questionnaires. Human Organisation, 20, 6569.Google Scholar
Eaton, J. W. & Weil, R. J. (1955) Culture and Mental Disorder. A Comparative Study of the Hutterites and Other Populations. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press.Google Scholar
Ewards, G., Chandler, J. & Hensman, E. (1972a) Drinking in a London suburb: I Correlations of normal drinking. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, (suppl.), 6, 6993.Google Scholar
Ewards, G., Chandler, J. & Hensman, E. et al (1972b) Drinking in a London suburb: II Correlates of trouble with drinking among men. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, (suppl.), 6, 94119.Google Scholar
Fernando, S. J. M. (1966) Depressive illness in Jews and non-Jews. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 991996.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fernando, S. J. M. (1973) Sociocultural Factors in Depressive Illness: A Comparative Study of Jewish and Non-Jewish Patients in East London. MD thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Fernando, S. J. M. (1975) A cross-cultural study of some familial and social factors in depressive illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 4653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fishberg, M. (1916) Jewish Encyclopaedia. New York.Google Scholar
Gershon, E. & Leibowitz, M. (1975) Sociocultural and demographic correlates of affective disorders in Jerusalem. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 3750.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gershon, E., Harrovit, J., Guraffe, E., et al (1982) A family study of schizoaffective, bipolar I, bipolar II, unipolar and normal control probands. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 11571167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halperin, L. (1938) Some data on the psychic morbidity of Jews and Arabs in Palestine. American Journal of Psychiatry, 94, 12151222.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M. (1960) A rating scale for depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 23, 5662.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrison, P. (1983) Inside the Inner City. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Hes, J. P. H. (1968) Hypochondriachal complaints in Jewish psychiatric patients. Israel Annals of Psychiatry and Related Disciplines, 6, 134142.Google Scholar
Hyde, R. W. & Chisolm, R. M. (1944) Studies in medical sociology III: the relationship of mental disorders to race and nationality. New England Journal of Medicine, 231, 612618.Google Scholar
Keller, M. (1970) The great Jewish drink mystery. British Journal of Addiction, 64, 287296.Google Scholar
Kidorf, I. W. (1963) Jewish tradition and Freudian theory of mourning. Journal of Religion and Health, 2, 248252.Google Scholar
Kimura, B. (1965) Vergleichende untersuchungen uber depressive erkrankungen in Japan und im Deutschland. Fortschritte de Neurologie-Psychiatrie, 33, 202215.Google Scholar
Kosmin, A. & Grizzard, N. (1975) Jews in an Inner London Borough (Hackney). Research Unit of the Board of Deputies of British Jews 1975 Based on 1971 Census. London: Jewish Board Deputies.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1921) Manic Depressive Insanity and Paranoia. (trans. Barclay, M.). Edinburgh: Livingstone.Google Scholar
Ladee, G. A. (1966) Hypochondriachal Syndromes. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Leighton, A. H., Lambo, T. A., Hughes, C. C., et al (1963) Psychiatric Disorder among the Yoruba. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lenski, G. (1963) The Religious Factor. A Sociological Study of Religion's Impact on Politics, Economics and Family Life. New York: Doubled ay.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. (1978) Psychiatry and the Jewish tradition. Psychological Medicine, 8, 919.Google Scholar
Lindeman, E. (1963) Symptomatology and management of acute grief. American Journal of Psychiatry. 101, 141148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malzberg, B. (1930) The prevalence of mental disease among Jews. Mental Hygiene, 14, 926943.Google Scholar
Malzberg, B. (1952) The distribution of mental disease according to religious affiliation in New York State 1949–1951. Mental Hygiene, 46, 510522.Google Scholar
Marsella, A. J. (1978) Thoughts on cross-cultural studies on the epidemiology of depression. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 2, 343357.Google Scholar
Mechanic, D. (1966) Response factors in illness: the study of illness behaviour. Social Psychiatry, 1, 1120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mechanic, D. (1972) Social psychological factors affecting presentation of bodily complaints. New England Journal of Medicine, 286, 11321139.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M., Wittkower, E. D. & Chance, N. A. (1967) Cross cultural enquiry into symptomotology of depression: a preliminary report. International Journal of Psychiatry, 3, 615.Google Scholar
Orley, J. & Wing, J. K. (1979) Psychiatric disorders in two African villages. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 513521.Google Scholar
Parkes, J. (1955) The history of the Anglo-Jewish community. In A Minority in Britain, (ed. Freedman, M.). London: Valentine Mitchell.Google Scholar
Pollock, G. H. (1972) On mourning and anniversaries: the relationship of culturally determined defensive systems to intrapsychic adaptive processes. Israel Annals of Psychiatry and Related Disciplines, 10, 940.Google Scholar
Rao, A. V. (1966) Depression - a psychiatric analysis of thirty cases. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 8, 143154.Google Scholar
Rinder, I. (1963) Mental health of American and Jewish urbanites. Review of literature and predictions. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 9, 104109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roth, P. (1967) Portnoy's Complaint. London: Corgi Books Transworld Publishers.Google Scholar
Saenger, G. (1968) Psychiatric out-patients in America and Netherlands: a transcultural comparison. Social Psychiatry, 3, 149152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanua, V. D. (1959) Differences in personality adjustment among different generations of American Jews and non-Jews. In Culture and Mental Health, (ed. Opler, M. K.). New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Singer, K. (1975) Depressive disorders from a transcultural perspective. Social Science and Medicine, 19, 289301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snedecor, G. W. & Cochran, W. G. (1980) Statistical Methods (7th edn). Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. J., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) Research Diagnostic Criteria rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 773782.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suchman, E. A. (1964) Sociomedical variations among ethnic groups. American Journal of Sociology, 70, 319331.Google Scholar
Teja, J. S., Narang, R. L. & Aggarwal, A. K. (1971) Depression across cultures. British Journal of Psychiatry, 119, 253260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, M. M., Myers, J. K. & Harding, P. S. (1980) Prevalence and psychiatric heterogeneity of alcoholism in a United States urban community. Journal of Studies of Alcoholism, 41, 672681.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. & Sturt, E. (1978) The PSE-ID-CATEGO System, supplementary manual. London: MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Wittkower, E. D. & Rin, H. (1965) Transcultural psychiatry. Archives of General Psychiatry, 13, 387394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.