Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The epidemiology of schizophrenia among Caribbean-born and first- and second-generation migrants in Britain

  • Published:
Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless

Abstract

The study of migrants in their new environments is often a useful means of investigating environmental influences on health. Migrants have been found to develop higher rates of mental illness compared to their counterparts who remain at home. These deleterious effects of migration have been attributed to selection factors and stressful life experiences. Migration from an agricultural and traditional society to an urban industrial society where value systems can be demanding, often leads to role strain and role conflict. These kinds of incongruities are the beginning of a series of stressful experiences that contribute to poor health/mental health status. The extent to which one experiences stress is dependent on a number of factors. First, it depends on the perceived difference between home and the new environment. Second, it depends on the cultural homogeneity of the new environment, that is, the extent to which the migrant is readily assimilated into the new culture or is able to maintain a traditional lifestyle by living in an ethnic enclave, and the psychological resources available to successfully access services in the new environment. This paper examines the rates, incidence, and prevalence of schizophrenia found in Caribbean-born immigrants to Britain, and first- and second-generation people of Caribbean background born in Britain. It is argued that Afro-Caribbean people in England are overrepresented in the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Factors that may contribute to this finding range from unemployment, social disadvantage status, social adversity, racism in the health and criminal justice systems, and misdiagnosis.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akinsola, H. A., & Fryers, T. (1986). A comparison of patterns of disability in severly mentally handicapped children of different ethnic origins.Psychological Medicine, 16 127–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bissenden, J. G. (1987). Ethnic differences in incidence of very low birth weight and neonatal deaths among normally formed infants.Archives of Disease of Childhood, 62 709–711.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, C. (1984).Black and White Britain: The PSI Survey. London: Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, A. W. (1974). First admissions and planning in Jamaica.Social Psychiatry, 9 39–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, A. W. (1984). Racism and psychological disturbance among West Indians in Britain.International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 30 50–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter, L., & Brockington, I. F. (1980). A study of mental illness in Asians, West Indians, and Africans living in Manchester.British Journal of Psychiatry, 137 201–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochrane, R. (1983).The social creation of mental illness. London: Logman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochrane, R., & Bal, S. S. (1987). (a) Migration and schizophrenia: An examination of five hypotheses.Social Psychiatry, 22 181–191

    Google Scholar 

  • (b) (1989). Mental hospital admission rates of immigrants to England: A comparison of 1971 and 1981.Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 24 2–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, P., Osborn, M., Gath, D., & Feggetter, G. (1982). Evaluation of a modified self-report measure of social adjustment.British Journal of Psychiatry, 141 68–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean, G., Walsh, D., & Downing (1981). First admissions of native born and immigrants to psychiatric hospitals in South East England.British Journal of Psychiatry, 139 506–512.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eagles, J. M. (1991). The relationship between schizophrenia and immigration.British Journal of Psychiatry, 159 783–789.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eitinger, L. (1959). The incidence of mental disease among refugees in Norway.Journal of Mental Science, 105 326–380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faris, R. E. L., & Dunham, H. W. (1939).Mental disorders in urban areas—An ecological study of schizophrenia and other psychoses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giggs, J. A., & Cooper, J. E. (1987). Ecological structure and the distribution of schizophrenia and affective psychoses in Nottingham.British Journal of Psychiatry, 151 627–633.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillberg, C., Steffenburg, S., & Borjesson, B. (1987). Infantile autism in children of immigrant parents: A population based study from Goteborg.British Journal of Psychiatry, 150 856–858.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glover, G. R. (1989). Why is there a high rate of schizophrenia in British Caribbean?British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 41 48–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, E. B. (1965). Mentally ill West Indians.British Journal of Psychiatry, 111 877–887.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffith, R., White, M., & Stonehouse, M. (1989). Ethnic differences in birth statistics from central Birmingham.British Medical Journal, 298 94–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare, E. H. (1987). Epidemiology of schizophrenia and affective psychoses.British Medical Bulletin, 43 514–530.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, G. (1990). Searching for the causes of schizophrenia. The role of migrant studies.Schizophrenia Bulletin, 16(4), 663–671.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, G., Owens, D., Holton, A., Felton, D., & Boot, D. (1988). A prospective study of severe mental disorder in Afro-Caribbean patients; some social, demographic and service factors.Psychological Medicine, 19 683–696.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, I., Williams, M., McGuffin, P., & Toone, B. K. (1990). The functional psychoses in Afro-Caribbeans.British Journal of Psychiatry, 157 817–821.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hicklin, F. W. (1991). Psychiatric hospital admission rates in Jamaica, 1971–1988.British Journal of Psychiatry, 159 817–821.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ineichen, B. (1989). Afro-Caribbeans and the incidence of schizophrenia: A review.New Community, 15(3), 341.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, D. J., & Cooper, S. J. (1989). Viruses, immunity and mental disorder.British Journal of Psychiatry, 154 1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, G., Croft-Jeffreys, C., & David, A. (1990). Are British psychiatrists racist?British Journal of Psychiatry, 157 410–415.

    Google Scholar 

  • Littlewood, R., & Lipsedge, M. (1982). Aliens and alienists.Ethnic minorities and psychiatry. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Little, R., & Lipsedge, M. (1981a). Acute psychotic reactions in Caribbean-born patients.Psychological Medicine 11 303–318.

    Google Scholar 

  • Little, R., & Lipsedge, M. (1988). Psychiatric illness among British Afro-Caribbeans.British Medical Journal, 296 950–953.

    Google Scholar 

  • Little, R., & Lipsedge, M. (1981b). Some social and phenomenological characteristics of psychotic immigrants.Psychological Medicine, 11 289–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGovern, D., & Cope, R. V. (1987). First psychiatric admission rates of first and second generation Afro-Caribbeans.Social Psychiatry, 22 47.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGovern, D., & Cope, R. V. (1987). The compulsory detention of males of different ethnic groups with special reference to offender patients.British Journal of Psychiatry, 150 502–512.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mednick, S. A., Machon, R. A., & Huttanen, M. O. (1988). Adult schizophrenia following prenatal exposure to an influenza epidemic.Archives of General Psychiatry, 45 189–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mukerjee, S., Shukla, S., & Woodle, J. (1983). Misdiagnosis of schizophrenia in bipolar patients: A multi-ethnic comparison.American Journal of Psychiatry, 140 1571–1574.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Callaghan, E., Sham, P., Takei, N., Glover, G., & Murray, R. M. (1991). Schizophrenia after prenatal exposure to 1957 A2 influenza epidemic.The Lancet, 337 1248–1250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1986).The Labor Force Survey 1983 and 1984. Series LFS No. 4, HMSO, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen, D., Harrison, G., & Boot, D. (1991b). Ethnic factors in voluntary and compulsory admissions.Psychological Medicine, 21 185–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owens, D., Harrison, G., & Boot, D. (1991b). Ethnic factors in voluntary and compulsory admissions.Psychological Medicine, 21 185–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pipe, R., Bhat, A., Mathews, B., & Hampstead, J. (1991). Section 136 and African/Afro-Caribbean minorities.International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 37 15–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Royes, K. (1962). The incidence and features of psychosis in a Caribbean community. InProceedings of the third world congress of psychiatry. Montreal: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spitzer, R., Endicott, J., & Robins, E. (1975). Research Diagnostic Criteria. Monograph, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, C. W., & Osborn, M. F. (1994). A comparison of psychotic Afro-Caribbean and indigenous white patients.Social Psychiatry, 45 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sugarman, P. A. (1992). Outcome of schizophrenia in the Afro-Caribbean community.Social Psychiatry—Psychiatry and Epidemiology, 27 102–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Terry, P. B., Condie, R. G., & Settatree, R. S. (1980). Analysis of ethnic differences in perinatal statistics.British Medical Journal, 281 1307–1308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, C. S., & Lindenthal, J. J. (1989). Migration and mental health among the peoples of the Caribbean, 1948–1980.International Journal of Mental Health, 18(4), 92–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, S. C., Stone, K., Osborn, M., Thomas, P. F. & Fisher, M. (1993). Psychiatric morbidity and compulsory admission among U.K. born Europeans, Afro-Caribbeans and Asians in Central Manchester.British Journal of Psychiatry, 163 91–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torrey, E. F. (1987). Prevalence studies in schizophrenia.British Journal of Psychiatry, 150 598–608.

    Google Scholar 

  • Townsend, P., Phillmore, P., & Beattie, A. (Eds.) (1988).Health and deprivation: Inequality and the north. London: Croom Helm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuck, S. M., Cardozo, L. D., & Studd, J. W. W. (1983). Obstetric characteristics in different racial groups.British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 90 892–897.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wessley, S. Castle, D. Der, & Murray, G. (1991). Schizophrenia and Afro-Caribbeans. A case control study.British Journal of Psychiatry, 159 795–801.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wing, J. K. (1989). Schizophrenic psychoses: causal factors and risks. In P. Williams, G. Wilkinson, & K. Rawnsley (Eds.), In the scope of epidemiological psychiatry. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National League for Nursing, 350 Hudson Street, 10014, New York, NY

    Delroy M. Louden

Authors
  1. Delroy M. Louden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

This paper was completed when the author served as Distinguished Visiting Professor-William Patterson College, Wayne, New Jersey.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Louden, D.M. The epidemiology of schizophrenia among Caribbean-born and first- and second-generation migrants in Britain. J Soc Distress Homeless 4, 237–253 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02088020

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02088020

Key words

Search

Navigation