1969

First data on the incidence of mental illness in Mannheim

Heinz Häfner and colleagues publish figures on the frequency of mental illness in Mannheim for the first time. In 1965, an average of 10.7 per 1,000 inhabitants were diagnosed with a mental illness for the first time. The highest figures of 17.9 out of 1,000 and 16.5 out of 1,000 were recorded in the Östliche Unterstadt and Jungbusch districts respectively. The figures for alcoholism are also particularly high here. The lowest rates were in Wallstadt (5.8 per 1,000), followed by Schönau (6.6), Neuostheim/Neuhermsheim (7.6) and Sandhofen (7.6). The figures are also above average in the city centre (13.6 per 1,000), in the Speckweg area (15.6), in Hochstätt (13.2) and in Rheinau (11.4). A surprising exception for the authors is Oststadt, which also has an above-average rate of 12.7 per 1,000. Overall, however, these results support the assumption that there are correlations between social standards such as housing situation and the state of the local community and the occurrence of mental illness.

Häfner et al.: Incidence of mental illness in Mannheim 1965, Social Psychiatry Vol. 4, No. 3, 1969, 126-135.