Employment and mental hospitalization: the case of Buffalo, New York, 1914-55.
This paper explores the connection between employment trends and state mental hospital admissions first presented by Brenner in Mental Illness and the Economy. The analysis is based on employment data for the Buffalo SMSA and admissions to the SMSAs only major public psychiatric hospital for the years 1914 to 1955. We employ a series of specifications in time-series analyses. Our findings contrast with Brenner's; unlike his analysis, ours indicates that employment is positively related to admissions. Consistent with other previous research, hospital capacity is also found to be important in predicting admissions. We offer a number of interpretations for the results, in particular noting the need for the examination of the stressful effects of work itself, not merely its loss.
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D004651:Employment / Q000639:trends*; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006783:Hospitals, State / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D009518:New York; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000639:trends*; D013997:Time Factors