Psychiatric hospital admission rates in Jamaica: 1971 and 1988 - abstract

ABSTRACT

The pyschiatric hospital admission rates per 100,000 population for the Caribbean island of Jamaica for the years 1971 and 1988 are presented, including the admission rates for the main psychiatric diagnoses for those years. The overall admission rate for 1971 was 136 per 100,000, and 69 per 100,000 for 1988. The admission rate for schizophrenia was 69 per 100,000 in 1971 and 35 in 1988. The 49 percent reduction in admission rates over this 17-year period is attributed to the introduction of an islandwide Community Mental Health Service with general hospital psychiatric admission at the parish hospital level in 1972. The admission rate for schizophrenia was found to be five or six times lower than the rate reported for Afro-Caribbeans in the U.K. by a number of studies, and more in keeping with the admission rate for schizophrenia reported for the general population in England. Possible reasons for this finding are discussed (AU)