A Survey of Chronic Patients in a Mental Hospital

Abstract

A statistical study of large numbers of chronic mental patients may seem to have no direct bearing on the problem of how to treat the individual patient and prevent chronicity. Yet the collection and analysis of mass data form an essential part of epidemiological studies which have made possible many notable advances in preventive medicine. Much of the statistical information at present available in various official documents such as the annual reports of the Ministry of Health and the Board of Control, the Registrar-General's Statistical Review, are so generalized and fragmentary as to be almost meaningless (Lancet, 1955). A few mental hospitals publish annual reports containing broad statistical information; but the detailed facts needed for proper assessment of the size and nature of the problem and for any rational reform are almost invariably lacking. Throughout the field of psychiatry, particularly in connection with the development and effect of chronicity, the existing vital statistics are incomplete and inconclusive.