ADMISSION OF BRITISH CARIBBEAN TO MENTAL-HOSPITALS - IS IT A COHORT EFFECT

Work in the 1980s has shown that the high incidence of schizophrenia i n British Caribbean men is restricted to those born after 1950. Data f rom a study of admissions in three London health districts suggested t hat the greater part of this excess risk may be confined to those born before 1966. This suggests that the group of British Caribbean men ex periencing a high frequency of schizophrenia could be a tightly deline ated birth cohort. If confirmed in wider studies, this could have impo rtant implications for the elucidation of the causes of one type of sc hizophrenia.