Abstract
One of the most consistent observations in health survey research is that women report symptoms of both physical and mental illness and utilise physician and hospital services for these conditions at higher rates than men. Two major British sources—the 1955/56 study of consultations in general practice by Logan and Cushion (1958) and a review by Kessel and Shepherd (1962) of hospital and out-patient data for the years 1953 and 1956—are consistent in showing that women have higher rates of mental illness than men. The 1955/56 study gives consulting rates for psychoneurotic disorders more than twice as large for women as for men. Kessel and Shepherd present similar data from a study of a London general practice and also show more female out-patients in hospital psychiatric clinics and higher admission rates to mental hospitals for women. The prevalence of neurosis in a sample drawn from the general population is not precisely known although the evidence from such studies as those of Hare and Shaw (1965) and Taylor and Chave (1964) suggests a similar picture. In her review of the relationship between illness and the feminine role, Nathanson (1975) observes that the consistency and the uniformity of women’s relatively high morbidity rates, together with the contradictory evidence of their favourable mortality make it the more surprising that so little attention has been devoted to a search for an explanation.
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© 1978 Raghu N. Gaind and Barbara L. Hudson
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Clare, A. (1978). Observations on Psychiatric Morbidity and Premenstrual Distress in Women. In: Current Themes in Psychiatry 1. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03642-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03642-4_14
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