A Statistical Study of Departures from a Mental Hospital

Abstract

Various studies of the numbers of patients in mental hospitals have been made, e.g. Brooke (1963); General Register Office (1960); Gore and Jones (1961); Hassall, Spencer, and Cross (1965); Malzberg (1955); Norris (1959); Norton (1961); Registrar General (1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964); Tooth and Brooke (1961), but little attempt has been made to find whether these numbers are subject to natural law. In this paper I have tried to establish this. These researches have been made on the patients of the Central Hospital, Warwick, which has been in continuous use since 30 June 1852. The case sheets of the older patients are accessible; the recent ones are also personally known.