Psychiatric diagnosis in New South Wales compared to England and Wales.

Comparative studies of first admission rates to psychiatric hospitals have revealed significant differences in the rates of diagnoses of functional psychoses between the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The present study examined the diagnoses of indigenous patients born between 1921 and 1955 and first admitted to hospitals in New South Wales, Australia, and England and Wales. Admission rates for mania were in striking agreement. The rate in New South Wales for schizophrenia was slightly higher and for psychotic depression considerably less than in England and Wales. A similar trend in diagnostic dissonance would appear to exist between England and Wales and New South Wales as between England and Wales and the United States for schizophrenia and psychotic depression, but this is considerably less in degree.