Skip to main content
Log in

Admission of British Caribbeans to mental hospitals: is it a cohort effect?

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Work in the 1980s has shown that the high incidence of schizophrenia in British Caribbean men is restricted to those born after 1950. Data from a study of admissions in three London health districts suggested that the greater part of this excess risk may be confined to those born before 1966. This suggests that the group of British Caribbean men experiencing a high frequency of schizophrenia could be a tightly delineated birth cohort. If confirmed in wider studies, this could have important implications for the elucidation of the causes of one type of schizophrenia.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. McGovern D, Cope RV (1987) First psychiatric admission rates of first and second generation Afro Caribbeans. Soc Psychiatry 22:139–149

    Google Scholar 

  2. Harrison G, Owens D, Holton A, Neilson D, Boot D (1988) A prospective study of severe mental illness in Afro Caribbeans. Psychol Med 22:643–657

    Google Scholar 

  3. Cochrane R (1977) Mental Illness in immigrants to England and Wales: an analysis of hospital admissions. Soc Psychiatry 12:25–35

    Google Scholar 

  4. Littlewood R, Lipsedge M (1981) Some social and phenomenological characteristics of psychotic immigrants. Psychol Med 11: 289–302

    Google Scholar 

  5. Glover GR (1989) The pattern of psychiatric admissions of Caribbean born immigrants in London. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 24:49–56

    Google Scholar 

  6. Wessely S, Castle D, Der G, Murray RM (1991) Schizophrenia and Afro-Caribbeans. A case control study. Br J Psychiatry 159: 795–801

    Google Scholar 

  7. Glover GR (1989) Why is there a high rate of schizophrenia in British Caribbeans? Br J Hosp Med 42:48–51

    Google Scholar 

  8. O'Callaghan E, Sham P, Takei N et al. Schizophrenia after prenatal exposure to 1957 A2 influenza epidemic. Lancet 337:1248–1250

  9. Flannigan CB, Glover GR, Feeney ST, Wing JK, Bebbington PE, Lewis SW (1994) The Inner London Collaborative Audit of Admissions in Two Health Districts. i. Introduction, methods and preliminary findings (in press)

  10. Glover GR (1989) Psychiatric hospital admissions in North London. In: Cruickshank JK, Beevers DG (eds) Ethnic factors in health and disease. Butterworth, London

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Glover, G.R., Flannigan, C.B., Feeney, S.T. et al. Admission of British Caribbeans to mental hospitals: is it a cohort effect?. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 29, 282–284 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00802051

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00802051

Keywords

Navigation