Mental Illness and Social Class in Bristol

During the past 40 years a number of studies have supported the general hypothesis that the incidence of mental illness differs among people in various occupational groups. In particular, these studies suggest that schizophrenia is more common among the lower-paid groups but that manic-depressive psychosis is more or less equally distributed among all groups. The evidence for this is briefly summarized below. Tietze, Lemkau, and Cooper (1942) have reviewed some early investigations, but, as Clark (1948) points out, their conclusions can be criticized on the grounds that no allowance was made for differences in age-distribution among the occupational groups. Later studies, however, are not subject to this