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The selective factors leading to psychiatric referral
Author(s) -
Hurry J.,
Tennant C.,
Bebbington P.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1980.tb07706.x
Subject(s) - psychiatry , referral , social class , mental illness , psychology , medicine , clinical psychology , mental health , family medicine , political science , law
Community surveys identify a much higher proportion of people suffering from “mental disorder” than are found in psychiatric clinics. We wanted to examine the role that social class played in selection into treatment and to what extent this influence if any, was due to an interaction effect with severity of illness. A community psychiatric survey was carried out in a working class area of London, sampling 800 adults. The Present State Examination was used to identify those subjects with psychological impairment, while a structured interview was used to elicit demographic data. In addition 74 “new” outpatient referrals were selected at random from a psychiatric case register existing in the area and interviewed using the same instruments. Is it concluded that while own social class has no significant effect on service use, father's social class and education are directly related to service use, though weakly, and that this relationship is unaltered when severity of illness is taken into account.