Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T06:54:12.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Is Schizophrenia Disappearing?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John M. Eagles*
Affiliation:
Mental Health Services Unit, The Ross Clinic, Cornhill Road, Aberdeen AB9 2ZF

Abstract

“The incidence of schizophrenia is regarded as being similar between different cultures and times. However, several studies, mostly based on first-admission rates, have suggested that the incidence has declined over the past 10–15 years. Data from England and Wales for 1952–86 have been examined: there has been a substantial decrease, beginning in the mid-1960s, in the incidence of schizophrenia.”

Type
The Current Literature
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

Baldessarini, R. J. (1970) Frequency of diagnoses of schizophrenia versus affective disorders from 1944 to 1968. American Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 759763.Google Scholar
Der, G., Gupta, S. & Murray, R. M. (1990) Is schizophrenia disappearing? Lancet, 335, 513516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eagles, J. M. & Whalley, L. J. (1985) Decline in the diagnosis of schizophrenia among first admissions to Scottish mental hospitals from 1969–1978. British Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 151154.Google Scholar
Eagles, J. M., Hunter, D. & McCance, C. (1988) Decline in the diagnosis of schizophrenia among first contacts with psychiatric services in North-East Scotland, 1969–1984. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 793798.Google Scholar
Joyce, P. R. (1987) Changing trends in first admissions and readmissions for mania and schizophrenia in New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 21, 8286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monk-Jorgensen, P. (1986) Decreasing first admission rates of schizophrenia among males in Denmark from 1970 to 1984: changing diagnostic patterns? Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 73, 645650.Google Scholar
Monk-Jorgensen, P. & Jorgensen, P. (1986) Decreasing rates of first admission diagnoses of schizophrenia among females in Denmark, 1970–1984. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 74, 379383.Google Scholar
Watson, C. G., Kucala, T., Tilleskjor, C., et al (1984) Schizophrenic birth seasonality in relation to the incidence of infectious diseases and temperature extremes. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 8590.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.