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Depression and the Physical Environment

A Study of Young Married Women on a London Housing Estate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John Birtchnell ,
Nigel Masters  and
Martin Deahl
John Birtchnell*
Affiliation:
MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, De Crespigny Park
Nigel Masters
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, Lakeside Health Centre, Thamesmead
Martin Deahl
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital
*
∗MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
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Abstract

A depression-screening instrument (DSI) was administered to all 25–34-year-old, British-born, married women registered with a health centre on a south-east London housing estate. A disproportionate number of high scorers lived in those dwellings with the highest disadvantagement score. The dwelling interiors of the high DSI scorers were significantly poorer in appearance compared with those of the low scorers. Significantly more of the high scorers (and of their husbands) described the estate as unpleasant, and bad for their children. They raised significantly more objections to other residents' (including children's) behaviour. Their complaints were only partly explicable in terms of their less favourable accommodation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 153 , Issue 1 , July 1988 , pp. 56 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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