Mental diseases: a public health problemMay, James Vance
Science
Mental diseases: a public health problem
May, James Vance
Mental health services; Psychology, Pathological
Nolan[84] has made an analysis of 646 first admissions to Matteawan
during a period of six years (1912 to 1918). Forty-eight per cent of
these were found to have been born in foreign countries. A striking
observation was the large proportion of male cases born in Italy (10.8
per cent) and the female cases born in Ireland (11.7 per cent). Of
the various races represented it was noted that the African, which
was only responsible for 3.9 per cent of the admissions to civil
hospitals, constituted 7.4 per cent of the Matteawan admissions. The
races having the largest representation were the Irish (18.7 per cent),
the Italian (12.4 per cent) and the Hebrew (10.8 per cent). The mixed
races constituted 11.3 per cent of the admissions as compared with
twenty-three per cent of the cases reported from civil institutions.
Among the male cases 11.4 per cent were charged with disorderly conduct
and 26.47 per cent with vagrancy. Of the women, eighteen per cent were
charged with disorderly conduct, 16.4 with public intoxication and 39.8
per cent with vagrancy and prostitution. These three groups represent
74.2 per cent of all of the female cases admitted. Of the 646 criminal
acts causing commitment, 34.1 per cent were classified from a legal
point of view as felonies and 65.9 per cent as misdemeanors. Only 5.3
per cent were charged with murder, manslaughter, etc. Of the various
psychoses represented by these cases 26.9 per cent were diagnosed as
dementia praecox, seventeen per cent as alcoholic psychoses, 14.7
per cent as constitutional psychopathic inferiority, 7.3 as mental
deficiency, 8.3 as manic-depressive psychoses, 11.3 as general paresis,
3.6 as senile psychoses, 2.0 as paranoia or paranoid conditions, 2.2
as epileptic psychoses, and 1.4 per cent as not insane. The alcoholic,
constitutionally inferior and mentally defective group constituted
thirty-eight per cent of the total. Of the 165 cases diagnosed as
dementia praecox it is interesting to note that eleven were charged
with homicide, ten with assault in the first degree, fifteen with
burglary, thirteen with petit larceny, fourteen with disorderly
conduct, and sixty-six with vagrancy or prostitution. Of the
seventy-four cases of general paresis thirteen were charged with petit
larceny, eleven with disorderly conduct, and twenty-nine with vagrancy
or prostitution. The homicides and assaults were committed principally
by the alcoholic, dementia praecox, constitutionally inferior and the
defective cases. The burglaries and larcenies were committed largely by
patients diagnosed as suffering from general paresis, dementia praecox
and constitutional psychopathic inferiority.
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