Depressive Illness in Jews and Non-Jews

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Abstract
Depressive illness is a major medical problem among psychiatric out-patients (Davies, 1964). Most of the recent investigations of depression have been related to the use of antidepressive drugs and electroplexy, but a deeper understanding of the condition quite apart from the efficacy of treatment is necessary (Lewis, 1964). The importance of cultural factors in mental illness is well recognized (Myers and Roberts, 1959), but their study has been neglected in Britain in spite of the variety of ethnic groups in many British cities, especially London. Many of the cultural groups in London consist of recent immigrants in whom the factors connected with immigration are difficult to separate from cultural influences. However, Anglo-Jews form a long established though distinct group which has been fully accepted in Britain for over a hundred years (Roth, 1964). They are predominantly British-born and English-speaking and number about 450,000, more than half of these living in London (Brotman, 1964). One of the older areas of settlement is the East End of London, but with economic advancement there has been a drift away from there to better class areas (Krausz, 1964). It was felt that a cross-cultural study in the East End of London comparing Jewish and non-Jewish patients suffering from depression might provide some insight into intercultural differences as well as the dynamics of depressive illness.

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