Psychiatric illness in male doctors and controls: an analysis of Scottish hospitals in-patient data

Abstract

An investigation was undertaken into the first admissions to (for the years 1963, 1965, 1968, 1972) and the total discharges from (for the years 1963-72) Scottish mental hospitals and psychiatric units of male doctors and other social class I males. The overall rates for both first admission and for all discharges were more than twice as high among male doctors as among other social class I males. First admission and total discharge rates for drug dependence, alcoholism, neurotic and 'functional' depression and for affective psychosis were all significantly higher among doctors than non-doctors. Doctors were more likely than non-doctors to have been referred by themselves or by medical sources other than general practitioners, and were as willing as non-doctors to enter hospital voluntarily. Creater access to psychiatrists may have contributed to their higher rates in in-patient care, but it is improbable that such factors accounted for all of the excess in rates of drug dependence, alcoholism and depression.