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From Joe:
"More than 93 percent of the men and women met criteria for at least one lifetime psychiatric disorder and nearly two-thirds of the participants had had three or more disorders in their lifetimes, the U of I reported."
I've never heard numbers that high. It's generally been around 60 percent, although there are always more people with mental illnesses in prisons and jails than in mental hospitals.
Study results published in Des Moines Register
Liz Spikol is senior contributing editor of Philadelphia Weekly. She writes the award-winning column The Trouble With Spikol, which began as a chronicle of her struggle with mental illness, and has since expanded into humorous musings on everything from graphic novels to how to use a mop. She also writes the paper's book review column, Lit Gloss. This blog -- named one of the Top 10 Bipolar Blogs of 2007 by PsychCentral -- is about mental illness policy, news, personal journeys and more.
Comments
Even more astounding is the finding that of the 93% psychiatric illness, 65% was the result of BEING in Iowa.
The rest was from watching that dancing show.
Posted by: HS | May 1, 2008 12:14 PM
Not only are the number of people who at aome point have had an episode of mental illness but so are the number of everybody in jail, Adam Liptak in the IHT looks at how the US fairs in terms of the number of people in jail or prison, “…ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)
The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151; Germany's is 88; and Japan's is 63.
The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.”
This probably doesn’t come as a shock but an amusing tidbit is, “San Marino, with a population of about 30,000, is at the end of the long list of 218 countries compiled by the center. It has a single prisoner.”
Posted by: terry | May 1, 2008 03:28 PM
Saw the article in the Register. Prisons are big biz in Iowa. Made me wonder about the frequency in the general population. I recall thinking that many people would meet the criteria for this study: especially substance abuse and depression. Not sure that is good or bad; it is what it is, though. Congrats on piece in the NYT.
Posted by: Tom Swartwood | May 12, 2008 05:28 PM