Social networks and service utilisation in patients with severe mental illness

In a seminal study, Elizabeth Bott (1957) investigated relationships between family roles and social networks in a small group of families in London. The author was an anthropologist, and the field of social network research, in psychiatry, has received major input from methods of social anthropology. Tolsdorf (1976) investigated social networks of patients with schizophrenia. Since then, many studies have focused different aspects of social networks and social support in patients with psychotic disorders.