Abstract
Social factors in an incidence by first admission group of forty-three carefully rediagnosed schizophrenic patients, who were the subject of a long term follow-up, were examined. The findings were:
— Schizophrenics are predominantly lower social class
— Drift from higher to lower social class prior to the onset of illness was not substantiated
— Families of origin were predominantly lower social class
— Patients were likely to have lower grade occupations than their fathers despite both frequently being lower social class
— An excess of urban resident patients, but many of them came from rural resident families
— Immigrants as a whole are not over-represented
— Minority immigrant groups and minority language groups were over-represented
— ‘At risk’ immigrant profile is: male, single, recent immigrant, eastern European origin, non-English speaking, poorly educated, in a lower grade occupation than his father.