A PSYCHIATRIC CENSUS OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC
ERIC BERNE M.D.
Figures are offered representing a psychiatric census of the South Pacific.
1. The apparent prevalence is in almost direct proportion to the ratio of practitioners with medical training in each area.
2. The apparent prevalence is related to the availability of special hospital facilities for psychiatric patients.
3. The apparent incidence (first admissions) for endogenous psychoses is approximately the same for Caucasians and Maoris (Polynesians) in New Zealand.
These findings do not contradict, and tend to support, the hypotheses (a) that the reservoir of endogenous psychoses (true prevalence) maintains a constant ratio regardless of racial, cultural, geographical, and socio-economic conditions; and (b) that psychiatric hospital figures are functions of variables other than true prevalence or incidence.
