Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-29T02:19:03.591Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hospitalized Psychiatric Morbidity in the Republic of Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Dermot Walsh
Dermot Walsh*
Affiliation:
St. Loman's Hospital, Palmerstown, Co. Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There seems little doubt from available statistics that the Republic of Ireland has the highest rate of hospitalized psychiatric morbidity in the world. There are no complete international figures available for this statistic but the World Health Organization published for the first time in 1961 returns for numbers of patients treated in hospital in 119 different countries (W.H.O. 1961). In many cases the returns were incomplete or unsatisfactory in one or more particulars. The ideal was to establish for each country the total number of patients treated during each one of the five years 1955–1959. The number treated was defined as “the patients present at the beginning of the year in the various public and private institutions specializing in psychiatry and in other institutions (general hospitals, etc.) plus admissions and readmissions during the year”. Unfortunately this ideal was achieved for only a minority of the 119 countries. The difficulties encountered in compiling the figures are set out in the publication itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 114 , Issue 506 , January 1968 , pp. 11 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1968 

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

Arentsen, K., and Strömgren, E. (1959). “Patients in Danish psychiatric hospitals.” Acta Jutlandica, 131, 1. Medical Series 9.Google Scholar
Dawson, W. R. (1911). “The relation between the geographical distribution of insanity and that of certain social and other conditions in Ireland” (Presidential Address to Medico-Psychological Association). J. ment. Sci., 57, 571–597.Google Scholar
Hammer, M., and Leacock, E. (1961). “Source material on the epidemiology of mental illness.” In: Field Studies in the Mental Disorders, 418–476. (Ed. Zubin, J.) New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Kramer, M. (1963). “The uses and limitations of statistical data derived from mental hospitals.” Bull. Wld. Hlth. Org., 29, 491–510.Google Scholar
Malzberg, B. (1961). In: Comparative Epidemiology of the Mental Disorders. 114–119. (Ed. Hoch, P. and Zubin, J.) New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Plunkett, R. G., and Gordon, J. E. (1960). Epidemiology and Mental Illness. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Pugh, F., and MacMahon, B. (1962). Epidemiological Findings in United States Mental Hospital Data. London: J. and A. Churchill.Google Scholar
W.H.O. (1961). Epidemiological and Vital Statistics Report. Geneva, 14, 5. 174–189.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.