Am J Psychiatry 1986; 143:1249-1254
Copyright © 1986 by American Psychiatric Association
Distribution of treated mental illness in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem
M Rahav, AB Goodman, M Popper and SP Lin
The authors compared the rates of treated mental illness among ethnically
advantaged Ashkenazic Jews and ethnically disadvantaged Sephardic Jews in
four areas of Jerusalem defined by socioeconomic status. They found that
the rates of illness were higher in areas of lower socioeconomic status,
that the Ashkenazim had higher rates of illness than the Sephardim in the
areas of lower status, and that there was a comparatively high rate of
illness among the Ashkenazim in the very religious Jewish neighborhoods.
They interpret these findings on the basis of the theories of social
causation and social selection, including genetic transmission.
