Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T04:07:15.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Schizophrenia and religious affiliation in Northern Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

H. B. M. Murphy*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; and the Department of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Cuenca, Ecuador
G. Vega
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; and the Department of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Cuenca, Ecuador
*
Address for correspondence: Professor H. B. M. Murphy, Section of Transcultural Psychiatric Studies, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, 1266 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, P.Q., Canada H3G 1A8.

Synopsis

First admissions for schizophrenia in Northern Ireland are significantly higher for the Roman Catholics than for the rest of the population, although not as high as in the Irish Republic. The excess of Catholic cases affects only the never-married, and derives much more from the rural west of the territory than from the industrial east. It does not appear to be accounted for by geography per se, by the differential use of services, diagnostic bias, social class distribution, or mean age at marriage. There are indications that some conflict around sex and marriage and, more doubtfully, a sense of relative deprivation may be contributing factors.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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

REFERENCES

Bagley, C. & Binitie, A. (1970). Alcoholism and schizophrenia in Irishmen in London. British Journal of Addiction 65, 37.Google Scholar
Brody, H. (1974). Inishkillane: Change and Decline in the West of Ireland. Schocken: New York.Google Scholar
Buss, A. R. & Lang, P. J. (1965). Psychological deficit in schizophrenia. I: Affect, reinforcement and concept attainment. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 70, 224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cochrane, R. (1977). Mental illness in immigrants to England and Wales: an analysis of mental hospital admissions. Social Psychiatry 12, 2535.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compton, P. A. (1976). Religious affiliation and demographic variability in Northern Ireland. Transactions, Institute of British Geographers (new series) 1, 433452.Google ScholarPubMed
Department of Health and Social Security (G.B.). (1979). In-Patient Statistics from the Mental Health Enquiry for England 1976. Statistical and Research Report Series No. 22. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
General Register Office, Northern Ireland (19731974). Census of Population of Northern Ireland, 1971; County Series. HMSO: Belfast.Google Scholar
Goldberg, E. M. & Morrison, S. L. (1963). Schizophrenia and social class. British Journal of Psychiatry 109, 785802.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hallinan, J. M. (1981). Marital status and personality; Roman Catholic Irish males in a rural Irish community. Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty, United States International University: San Diego, California.Google Scholar
Humphreys, A. J. (1966). New Dubliners. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Kohn, M. L. (1968). Social class and schizophrenia; a critical review. Journal of Psychiatric Research Supplement 7, 155173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K. (1957). Social Theory and Social Structure (revised edn). Free Press: Glencoe.Google Scholar
Messenger, J. (1972). Sex and repression in an Irish folk community. In Human Sexual Behavior (ed. Marshall, D. S. and Suggs, R. C.), pp. 337. Basic Books: New York.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. (1975). Alcoholism and schizophrenia in the Irish: a review. Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review 12, 116139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. (1977). Migration, culture and mental health. Psychological Medicine 7, 677684.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nandi, D. N., Mukherjee, S. P., Boral, G. C., Banerjee, G., Ghosh, A., Sarkar, S. & Ajmany, (Sachdev) S. (1980). Socio-economic status and mental morbidity in certain tribes and castes in India—a cross-cultural study. British Journal of Psychiatry 136, 7385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ødegaard, O. (1946). Marriage and mental disease: a study in social psychopathology. Journal of Mental Science 62, 3559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ofstad, H. (1981). Identity and minority: value conflicts and conflicts of identity. In Strangers in the World (ed. Eitinger, L. and Schwarz, D.), pp. 4267. Huber: Bern.Google Scholar
O'Hare, A. & Walsh, D. (N.D.). Activities of Irish Psychiatric Hospitals and Units 1970, 19711972, 1973–1974, 1975–1976. Medico-Social Research Board: Dublin.Google Scholar
Opler, M. (1959). Cultural differences in mental disorders; an Italian and Irish contrast in the schizophrenias—USA. In Culture and Mental Health (ed. Opler, M.), pp. 425442. Macmillan: New York.Google Scholar
Parker, S. & Kleiner, R. J. (1966). Mental Illness in the Urban Negro Community. Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Scheper-Hughes, N. (1979). Saints, Scholars and Schizophrenics-Mental Illness in Rural Ireland. University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Stouffer, S. A., Suchman, E. A., De Vinney, L. C., Star, S. A. & Williams, R. M. (1949). The American Soldier: Adjustment during Army Life, Vol. I. Princeton University Press: Princeton.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. (1979). Poverty in the United Kingdom. Penguin: Harmondsworth.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, D. (N.D.). The 1963 Irish Psychiatric Hospital Census. Medico-Social Research Board: Dublin.Google Scholar
Walsh, D. & Walsh, B. (1970). Mental illness in the Republic of Ireland; first admissions. Journal of the Irish Medical Association 63, 365370.Google ScholarPubMed