Recovery From Schizophrenia: Psychiatry And Political Economy

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA 101• Deinstitutionalization in the United States relied heavily on the use of drugsand led to the placement of large numbers of the mentally ill in low-cost,inadequate settings.• Community care for the mentally ill in Britain stagnated and declined after the1960s.• Community treatment methods in the United States improved in the 1980sand 1990s.• The main political and economic driving forces to deinstitutionalization were(a) cost-saving and (b) in northern Europe, the postwar demand for labor.• Comparing Western industrial nations in 1965, the number of mental hospitalbeds in each country was correlated with the national unemployment rate.• A decade later, mental hospital use appeared to be less influenced by the labormarket and more affected by national health and welfare policy.• The unemployment rate may still influence the adequacy of communityrehabilitative efforts.