Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T01:28:22.834Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Century of Delusions in South West Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

A. D. T. Robinson
A. D. T. Robinson*
Affiliation:
MRC Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Two groups of patients admitted to psychiatric hospital in Dumfries were studied, drawn from the periods 1880–1889 and 1970–1979. Feighner criteria were applied to make three diagnostic categories – depression, mania and schizophrenia – and the occurrence and content of delusions were noted for each. A significant decline in the prevalence of delusional depressive illness was found between the two periods, and a similar trend was noted for delusional manic illness. In contrast, the prevalence of delusional schizophrenic illness was stable. This decline is taken to reflect a change in the phenomenology of affective illness since last century in South West Scotland. The content of delusions is also discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 153 , Issue 2 , August 1988 , pp. 163 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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

Anon (1877) Skae's Classification of Mental Diseases. Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology, 2, 195–237.Google Scholar
Arthur, A. Z. (1964) Theories and explanations of delusions: a review. American Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 105–115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berner, P. (1975) Present status of research on delusions. Psychiatria Clinica (Basel), 8, 1–13.Google ScholarPubMed
Browne, J. (1875) Skae's Classification of Mental Diseases: a critique. Journal of Mental Science, 21, 339–365.Google Scholar
Browne, W. A. F. (1857) In Appendix to the Report by Her Majesty's Commissioners (∗eds Scottish Lunacy Commission). Edinburgh: HMSO.Google Scholar
Bucknill, J. C. & Tuke, P. H. (1874) A Manual of Psychological Medicine, 3rd edn. London: J. & A. Churchill.Google Scholar
Clouston, T. S. (1876) Skae's Classification of Mental Diseases. Journal of Mental Science, 21, 532–550.Google Scholar
Cooper, J. & Sartorius, N. (1977) Cultural and temporal variations in schizophrenia: a speculation on the importance of industrialization. British Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 50–55.Google Scholar
Eagles, J. M. (1983) Delusional depressive in-patients, 1892–1982. British Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 558–563.Google Scholar
Eagles, J. M. & Whalley, L. J. (1985) Decline in the diagnosis of schizophrenia among first admissions to Scottish mental hospitals from 1969–78. British Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 151–154.Google Scholar
Feighner, J. P., Robins, E., Guse, S. B., Woodruff, R. A., Winokur, G. & Munoz, R. (1972) Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 57–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeman, T. (1981) On the psychopathology of persecutory delusions. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 529–532.Google Scholar
General Board of Lunacy (1880) Twenty-second Annual Report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland. Edinburgh: Neill & Co.Google Scholar
General Board of Lunacy (1887) Twenty-ninth Annual Report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland. Edinburgh: Neill & Co.Google Scholar
Glassman, A. H. & Roose, S. P. (1981) Delusional depression: a distinct clinical entity? Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 424–427.Google Scholar
Grove, W. M. & Andreasen, N. C. (1982) Simultaneous tests of many hypotheses in exploratory research. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 170, 3–8.Google Scholar
Hare, E. (1986) Aspects of the epidemiology of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 554–561.Google Scholar
Hesselbrock, V., Stabenau, J., Hesselbrock, M., Mirkin, P. & Meyer, R. (1982) A comparison of two interview schedules. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 674–677.Google Scholar
Jaspers, K. (1962) General Psychopathology. Translated from German, 7th edn, by Hoenig, J. & Hamilton, M. W. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Kesteven, W. B. (1881) On the early phases of mental disorder. Journal of Mental Science, 27, 189–193.Google Scholar
Klaf, F. S. & Hamilton, J. G. (1961) Schizophrenia – a hundred years ago and today. Journal of Mental Science, 107, 819–827.Google Scholar
Kraupl-Taylor, F. (1979) Psychopathology: its Causes and Symptoms, revised edn. Sunbury-on-Thames: Quartermaine House.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. J. (1936) Melancholia: prognostic and case material. Journal of Mental Science, 82, 488–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucas, C. J., Sainsbury, P. & Collins, J. G. (1962) A social and clinical study of delusions in schizophrenia. Journal of Mental Science, 108, 747–758.Google Scholar
Maas, J. W., Koslow, S. H., Davis, J. M., Katz, M. M., Mendels, J., Robins, E., Stokes, P. E. & Bowden, C. L. (1980) Biological component of the NIMH Clinical Research Branch collaborative program on the psychology of depression: 1. Background and theoretical considerations. Psychological Medicine, 10, 759–776.Google Scholar
Melges, F. T. & Freeman, A. M. (1975) Persecutory delusions: a cybernetic model. American Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 1038–1044.Google Scholar
Meltzer, H. Y., Cho, H. W., Carroll, B. J. & Russo, P. (1976) Serum dopamine-B-hydroxylase activity in the affective psychoses and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 585–591.Google Scholar
Morrison, J., Clancy, J., Crowe, R. & Winokur, G. (1972) The Iowa 500 – I. Diagnostic validity in mania, depression and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 27, 457–461.Google Scholar
Nelson, W. H., Khan, A. & Orr, W. W. (1984) Delusional depression, phenomenology, neuroendocrine function and tricyclic antidepressant response. Journal of Affective Disorders, 6, 297–306.Google Scholar
Van Praag, H. M. (1986) Biological suicide research: outcome and limitations. Biological Psychiatry, 21, 1305–1323.Google Scholar
Public General Acts 1857 Lunacy Act (Scotland). London: G. E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode.Google Scholar
Rutherford, J. (1886) Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries, 46th Annual Report for the Year 1885. Dumfries: Courier and Herald Offices.Google Scholar
Sargent, W. & Slater, E. (1954) An Introduction to Physical Methods of Treatment in Psychiatry, 3rd edn. Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone.Google Scholar
Stromgren, E. (1987) Changes in the incidence of schizophrenia? British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 1–7.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. A. & Abrams, R. (1973) The phenomenology of mania: a new look at some old patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 29, 520–522.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) Description and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Woodruff, R. A., Goodwin, D. W. & Guze, S. B. (1974) Psychiatric Diagnosis. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1978) Mental disorders: Glossary and Guide to their Classification in Accordance with the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Young, R. C., Schreiber, M. T. & Nysewander, R. W. (1983) Psychotic manic. Biological Psychiatry, 18, 1167–1173.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.