The patterns of mental disorder in Jewish and non-Jewish admissions to a district general hospital psychiatric unit: is manic-depressive illness a typically Jewish disorder?

Synopsis This is a preliminary investigation of admissions to a district general hospital psychiatric unit over a two-year period, in which patterns of psychiatric diagnoses in Jewish and non-Jewish patients were compared. Among the Jews there were significantly more patients with affective psychoses and fewer with schizophrenia than among the non-Jews. The methodological problems arising in such a study and some possible aetiological factors are discussed.