The stability of the ecological distribution of the incidence of treated mental disorders in the city of Mannheim

Summary

In 1965, Häfner et al. (1969) conducted an ecological study of the incidence of treated mental disorders in the industrial city of Mannheim. They found large variations in incidence rates in 20 urban areas: excess morbidity in the socially disorganized areas located mainly in the city center, and low rates in areas on the outskirts. This study incorporates additional data from the Cumulative Psychiatric Case Register established in Mannheim in 1973. It focuses on the short- and long-term stability of the spatial distribution of mental disorders comparing the year 1965 with the period 1974–80, and analysing the individual years from 1974–80. Despite marked changes between 1965 and the seventies (the increase in the number of guest workers; the development of extensive building and urban renewal programs; the establishment of the Central Institute of Mental Health and several community psychiatric services after 1975), the ecological correlation remained relatively high (r=0.79). Prior to the establishment of the Central Institute of Mental Health, the spatial distribution of mental disorders in the year 1974 was also very similar to that in 1965 (r=0.73). In general, the study revealed a highly stable ecological distribution of treated mental disorders not only on a long-term basis, but also for the individual years from 1974 to 1980.