Abstract
Epidemiologic studies of mental illness and treatment programs in populations supply a scientific data base for social psychiatry. Morris2 defines epidemiology as “the study of the frequency, distribution, and determinants of disease in groups.” Psychiatric epidemiology, therefore, seeks to ascertain who, where, when, and, eventually, why some become mentally ill. Such data, relating demographic and socioenvironmental factors on one hand and mental illness on the other, make up the bits and pieces of information that we hope can be assembled into a skeleton upon which a theory of mental health and illness can be built.
Epidemiology reminds us that no man is sufficient unto himself, that mental illness—perhaps more so than any other scourge of humanity—is a by-product of man’s social existence in a complex environment of his own making. Much, of course, can be gained by studying the pathological process in the individual; but complete understanding can be approached only as mental illness is viewed in the light of man’s eternal striving to adapt himself to the demands of his destiny. —Jack R. Ewalt 1
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Schwab, J.J., Schwab, M.E. (1978). The Epidemiologic Background. In: Sociocultural Roots of Mental Illness. Topics in General Psychiatry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2433-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2433-1_3
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