title: A century of delusions in south west Scotland.
abstract: Two groups of patients admitted to psychiatric hospital in Dumfries were studied, drawn from the periods 1880-1889 and 1970-1979. Feighner criteria were applied to make three diagnostic categories - depression, mania and schizophrenia - and the occurrence and content of delusions were noted for each. A significant decline in the prevalence of delusional depressive illness was found between the two periods, and a similar trend was noted for delusional manic illness. In contrast, the prevalence of delusional schizophrenic illness was stable. This decline is taken to reflect a change in the phenomenology of affective illness since last century in South West Scotland. The content of delusions is also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital.
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Robinson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history; D003702:Delusions / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000266:history; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history; D005260:Female; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history; D012606:Scotland