A Comparison of the Incidence of Hospitalized and Non-Hospitalized Cases of Psychosis in Two Communities

An investigation of the relationship between factors influencing occurrence of mental disorder rather than factors influencing its duration. In Wellesley, a town of 20,000, a predominantly Uc & UMc suburb of Boston a 15 yr period, 1936-1950 was chosen for hospitalized cases, & for non-hospitalized the 1946-50 period. For Whittier Street area of Roxbury, a Lc & LMc neighborhood of 68,000 pop, in Boston, hospital cases covered during the 1949 & non-hospitalized cases covered 1948-52 period. The results showed hospitalized psychoses were found to be signif'ly higher in LMc SE areas than in an upper level SE community. Lower community revealed signif'ly lower incidence of non-hospitalized psychosis than did the higher level community. Residents in higher community resisted hospitalization for mentally ill family members. Comparison in sub-areas of 2 communities indicates that the same inverse relation between hospitalized psychosis incidence rates & SE levels persists within the individual communities. Case finding procedures used here do not reveal accurately the number of non-hospitalized cases of psychosis in an area but indicate, within limits of the method, that incidence rates of non-hospitalized psychosis vary differently with SES than do rates of hospitalized psychosis. There remains a signif inverse relation between SE circumstances & mental illness. This finding may be the direct consequence of a system of soc stratification on the psyche of individuals. H. H. Smythe.