Am J Psychiatry 1984; 141:84-87
Copyright © 1984 by American Psychiatric Association
Effect of diagnostic criteria on the ratio of male to female schizophrenic patients
R Lewine, D Burbach and HY Meltzer
Contrary to earlier epidemiological data, recent evidence points to a
significantly greater proportion of men than women among schizophrenic
patients diagnosed by current restrictive criteria. In this study, the
authors analyzed the effect of using six different diagnostic systems
(varying in their stringency) on the male to female ratio of schizophrenia
among 387 inpatients. Diagnostic criteria representing a broad
conceptualization of schizophrenia, such as the New Haven Schizophrenia
Index, consistently yielded equal rates of schizophrenia among men and
women. Those diagnostic systems representing more stringently defined
schizophrenia, such as the Research Diagnostic Criteria, consistently
yielded a male to female ratio significantly greater than the male to
female ratio of the total sample.
