Mental illness in England, in Scotland and in Scots living in England

Summary

Beginning from the observation that Scots living in England have much higher rates of mental hospital admission than do the English, several hypotheses are proposed to account for this. Much of the excess in rates of mental illness is accounted for by those diagnosed as having alcohol-related disorders and behaviour and personality problems. The results of an examination of offical statistics in the two countries enabled some explanations to be offered. It was found that rates of admissions to mental hospitals are higher in Scotland than in England but not as high as those found among Scots migrants who have a much higher rate of readmission to hospitals than either of the other groups. In fact, if first admissions only are considered the rates of admission in Scotland are not only higher than rates for English natives but also higher than for Scottish migrants. It seems that Scots living in England are somewhat less likely to become mental patients than Scots in Scotland but that once they do achieve this status they are very much more likely to be readmitted on subsequent occasions. It was concluded that there might be two fairly distinct groups of migrants from Scotland to England who have different backgrounds, different reasons for migrating and different psychological characteristics. On the one hand there are stable, economically motivated migrants who move south for definite employment related reasons and who show few psychological symptoms. While on the other hand there is a group of migrants who perhaps have psychological problems and who move more in hope than expectation without definite prospects and who account for the high rates of mental hospital admission found in Scottish migrants.