The patterns of mental disorder in Jewish and non-Jewish admissions to a district general hospital psychiatric unit: is manic-depressive illness a typically Jewish disorder?

Religion, social integration, and depression in Europe: Evidence from the European Social Survey

Western Europe's growing Muslim population has occasioned considerable debate regarding cultural integration, immigration, and social isolation. In this study I explore the relationship between religious identification and depression in European countries, focusing in particular on the situation of Muslims, but comparing across other religious groups, as well as those who are unaffiliated with any religion. The analysis is based on countries sampled in the sixth round of the European Social Survey, conducted in 2012. The results reveal the dueling effects of religious identity: religious involvement involves social integration among like-minded friends, but can also invite discrimination from others. This dueling effect implies significant differences between groups. Among Protestants and Catholics greater religious identification is associated with progressively lower depression, relative to those with no affiliation. Among Muslims lower levels of identification are associated with significantly more depression. Muslims of the highest level of identification are statistically indistinguishable from those with no religious affiliation. These patterns among Muslims are not born of poor social integration, but rather reflect more experiences with discrimination. Overall differences among religious groups are very strong: the difference in depression between Muslims and Protestants, for instance, exceeds the difference between men and women.

Religion and depression: a review of the literature

We reviewed data from approximately 80 published and unpublished studies that examined the association of religious affiliation or involvement with depressive symptoms or depressive disorder. In these studies, religion was measured as religious affiliation; general religious involvement; organizational religious involvement; prayer or private religious involvement; religious salience and motivation; or religious beliefs. People from some religious affiliations appear to have an elevated risk for depressive symptoms and depressive disorder, and people with no religious affiliation are at an elevated risk in comparison with people who are religiously affiliated. People with high levels of general religious involvement, organizational religious involvement, religious salience, and intrinsic religious motivation are at reduced risk for depressive symptoms and depressive disorders. Private religious activity and particular religious beliefs appear to bear no reliable relationship with depression. People with high levels of extrinsic religious motivation are at increased risk for depressive symptoms. Although these associations tend to be consistent, they are modest and are substantially reduced in multivariate research. Longitudinal research is sparse, but suggests that some forms of religious involvement might exert a protective effect against the incidence and persistence of depressive symptoms or disorders. The existing research is sufficient to encourage further investigation of the associations of religion with depressive symptoms and disorder. Religion should be measured with higher methodological standards than those that have been accepted in survey research to date.

Affective disorders among Jews: a historical review and meta-analysis

Descriptions of affective disorders among Jews date back to biblical times. For over a century the psychiatric literature has debated whether Jews are more vulnerable to affective disorders. To ascertain the validity of this finding we undertook a meta-analysis of data extracted from the literature published to date. Forty-three studies were identified that could be analysed statistically using Cohen's d and a Mantel-Haenszel summary odds ratio. An increased, but weak overall risk was found for males. Possible biases of the literature are discussed, including differential help-seeking patterns, lack of accounting for readmission rates, failure to control for confounding variables, and an anti-Semetic orientation on the part of researchers. Reasons for why Jews have higher rates of affective disorders than non-Jews are explored.

Alcoholism diagnosis and Celtic names

Objective: To investigate assertions that Celts have higher rates of alcoholism and mental illness than non-Celts.

Method: The records of 3,000 admissions to Northwick Park Hospital Psychiatric Unit, Harrow (a North West London suburban middle class borough research hospital with a strictly defined catchment area – the London Borough of Harrow: population 200,000), from June 1987 for three years under the clinical care of four consultant psychiatrists, were examined.

Results: There were 683 with non-Celtic names and 175 with Celtic names (16.7%) (data on 10 patients incomplete). 306 (35%) of non-Celts and 88 (50%) of Celts were aged under 40 years. Alcohol dependence (ICD 303) was significantly commoner (p<0.001) among the Celts (35.3%) than among the non-Celts (12.9%). There were highly significant excesses (p<0.001) of native-born Celts with ICD 303 (54%) compared with non-Celts 12.9% or with Celts born outside Celtdom (23%). Patients with Norman names tended to follow the Celts in these respects. There were no differences with respect to the prevalence of psychosis or other ICD categories among Celts and non-Celts.

Conclusion: Doctors should be aware of the high prevalence of alcoholic dependence among people with Celtic names, whether these were born in Celtic countries or not, entertain a high index of diagnostic suspicion and take preventative measures accordingly. However, we found no excess of other categories of psychiatric disorder among Celts as compared with non-Celts. Patients with Norman-derived names seemed to follow the Celts in these respects.

Jewish Americans and mental health: results of the NIMH Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study

Data from the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study showed that the overall lifetime rate of psychiatric disorder among Jews did not differ from the rate among non-Jews. However, there was a significant difference between Jewish and non-Jewish samples when comparing the distribution of specific psychiatric disorders. Compared with Catholics and Protestants, Jews had significantly higher rates of major depression and dysthymia, but lower rates of alcohol abuse. Jews were more likely than Catholics or Protestants to seek treatment with mental health specialists and general practitioners. These differences remained statistically significant after adjusting for sex, age, race and socioeconomic status.

Symptoms and social adjustment in Jewish depressives

In 25 Jewish and 26 non-Jewish depressives resident in Hackney, the PSE revealed that 'hypochondriasis' and 'tension' were more common in the Jewish group, and special features of depression, containing symptoms connected with guilt, was less common. These differences could not be explained by variation in severity of illness as both groups had similar scores on the HRSD. The 'social maladjustment' scores were similar, very probably reflecting an elderly, deprived, inner-city population.