The present investigation is an 11-13 follow-up of the subsequent psychiatric histories of children who did or did not participate in a preventively oriented school mental health program between 1958-1961. Clinical "risk" or "vulnerability" judgments were available for program children, and reasonably comprehensive third-grade test data were available for all children. Early detected vulnerable children were found to have disproportionately high later appearances in a community-wide psychiatric register. Retrospective analyses of the third-grade test data indicated that peer judgment was, by far, the most sensitive predictor of later psychiatric difficulty.

No abstract

The Monroe County Psychiatric Case Register and hospital records were used to investigate the incidence of anorexia nervosa in Monroe County, New York, during the periods 1960-1969 and 1979-1976 to determine whether the number of newly diagnosed cases has increased over time. The results support the general clinical impression of a recent increase in the incidence of anorexia nervosa. This pattern of overall change was accounted for by the sharp increase in the number of females with the disorder, particularly those aged 15-24. The data also suggest that the disorder occurs more often in the higher socioeconomic levels.

SynopsisAll patients with anorexia nervosa were extracted from three psychiatric case registers— North-East Scotland, Camberwell, and Monroe County. The average incidence varied from 0·37 per 100,000 population per year in Monroe County to 1·6 per 100,000 in North-East Scotland, in all three areas the number of cases reported per year was increasing, and in Camberwell, but not in Monroe County or North-East Scotland, there was a significant excess of patients from middle-class backgrounds.

No abstract