title: The two town study: a comparison of psychiatric illness in two contrasting Western Australian mining towns.
abstract: The results are presented of a survey of patients identified by their general practitioner as having conspicuous psychiatric morbidity, according to Kessel's (1960) Classification, during a three months general practice survey in two Western Australian towns, one Gynalla, a new expanding town in the Pilbara area and the other, Jaburoo, an established economically stagnant town in the South West. The findings show a higher general practice consultation attendance rate for both sexes, and a higher rate of psychiatric illness among females, in Jaburoo than in Gynalla. In Gynalla psychiatric cases among women formed a disproportionately high percentage of all general practice attendances. The implications of these findings are discussed.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety; D001315:Australia; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008906:Mining; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D009787:Occupational Medicine; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D014505:Urban Population