[Aid to patients with mental disorders in Provence in the 18th century]

The provençal attitude towards the "insane" presents during the studied period several leading characteristics; they separate it clearly from the other part of the Kingdom, but, on the other hand, integrate it into a more specific latino-mediterranean behaviour. These characteristics are chiefly: a comparatively kind demeanor towards the mentally ill; an already very medical sight of madness, compared with that of North Europe; the foundation of specialized institutions for insane earlier than in other parts of Western World. The investigations of the leading "provençal" mental hospitals, public and private, confirms this statement. The authors have studied for that purpose: the three "lunatic asylums" of Avignon (1681, the most conclusive), Aix (1691) and Marseille (1699); several private foundations at Saint Remy, Salon de Provence, Manosque. The study of the attendance on mental patients in Provence during the Classic Era shows the danger to speculate perilously as Michel Foucault in his book "La Folie à l'Age Classique much greater than. The investigations on the institutions, that only begins, proves it was very diversified, and the patients were took charge medically long before Pinel.

Hospitalized psychiatric morbidity in the Republic of Ireland

There seems little doubt from available statistics that the Republic of Ireland has the highest rate of hospitalized psychiatric morbidity in the world. There are no complete international figures available for this statistic but the World Health Organization published for the first time in 1961 returns for numbers of patients treated in hospital in 119 different countries (W.H.O. 1961). In many cases the returns were incomplete or unsatisfactory in one or more particulars. The ideal was to establish for each country the total number of patients treated during each one of the five years 1955–1959. The number treated was defined as “the patients present at the beginning of the year in the various public and private institutions specializing in psychiatry and in other institutions (general hospitals, etc.) plus admissions and readmissions during the year”. Unfortunately this ideal was achieved for only a minority of the 119 countries. The difficulties encountered in compiling the figures are set out in the publication itself.