Differential Rates of Schizophrenia in Croatia, Yugoslavia

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Abstract
A belief that there is more psychotic illness in a specific area of what is now Croatia than in other areas of the Republic has been tested using available statistics and additional data specifically collected for this study. Analyses have all pointed in the same direction, supporting a belief which has been current for about a century. These findings lead to the tentative conclusion that there are actually many more psychotics in the study area than in comparable areas elsewhere, and to the belief that the present findings justify further and more rigorous study of the problem. The high rates of schizophrenia in the study area are accompanied by higher rates for all psychoses. While this gives us confidence that the rates for schizophrenia are not due to differences of diagnostic practice in different parts of the country, it also lessens the impact of the finding for schizophrenia itself. It would appear to lower the chance of discovering factors likely to be specifically related to schizophrenia. It may be that this population suffers a low state of general health and is, therefore, susceptible to all sorts of mental (and other) illnesses. Indeed, in another study concerned with a "neurotic" syndrome in the area, high prevalence is suspected. All this leads to innumerable etiological speculations, at least some of which it is hoped may be isolated and studied in future research programs.

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