Subject(s)
Mental Disorders , Obesity/epidemiology , Obesity/psychology , Social Class , Female , History, 20th Century , Humans , Male , Obesity/historySubject(s)
Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Diagnosis, Differential , Epidemiologic Methods , Humans , Manuals as TopicABSTRACT
The "Mental Paradise Lost" school in psychiatry propounds a historical trend of deteriorating mental health in the general population, particularly among women, and especially in big cities. The socio-epidemiological Midtown Manhattan Longitudinal Study, covering four decade-of-birth cohorts born since 1895, has yielded data that challenge those claims. To explain serendipitous findings of intergeneration differences between Midtown men and women on measures of subjective well-being, a theory is advanced based on changes in the status and roles of women since the late Victorian era. Possible policy implications for preventive psychiatry are discussed, and further follow-up research outlined for the specialty field of socio-psychiatric history.
Subject(s)
Mental Disorders/history , Adult , Female , Forecasting , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Middle Aged , New York City , Psychiatry/trendsABSTRACT
This paper examines three related questions: First, can psychiatrists' judgments be successfully predicted by multiple regression techniques? Second, assuming that they can, are such ratings a valid measure of mental health for the same sample at a later point in time? Third, what is the relation between mental health ratings made in 1954 and such subsequently reported behavioral outcomes as nervous breakdown, mental hospitalization, or seeking professional help for emotional problems? The evidence presented warrants two conclusion. (1) The computer-derived mental health ratings are an adequate substitute for the original ratings. The regression equation accounts for 69 percent of the variance in those ratings; and the computer-derived ratings behave in the same way as the psychiatrists' ratings in relation to other variables. (2) However, neither the psychiatrists' ratings nor the computer-derived ratings are very accurate in predicting subsequent self-reported behavior indicative of mental impairment.
