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- Title
Sex Differences in the Use of Psychiatric Outpatient Facilities.
- Authors
Kessler, Ronald C.; Reutler, James A.; Greenley, James R.
- Abstract
The article provides information on a study which explored the differences in the use of psychiatric outpatient facilities. Most studies of the demographic correlates of mental illness in the United States have reported disproportionately high numbers of women in psychiatric patient populations. Recent studies have argued that men are more subject than women to selective control through mental hospitalization. This paper in contrast, will focus on the largely voluntary use of general hospital and ambulatory mental health care, the largest and fastest growing segments of the mental health care system. In this area, there is some support for both psychiatric and selection interpretations of the preponderance of women. To obtain evidence of this sort would require access to individual-level data about people both in and out of treatment. Representative data of this sort have not been analyzed, to our knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to report the result of such an analysis for a comparative sample of users and non-users of university student psychiatric clinic. Since the details of the study design and characteristics of the sample have been described elsewhere, only a brief overview is provided here. The data come from a self-administered questionnaire survey of two samples, one a random sample of a student population in a large Midwest university and the other a sample of students applying for service at the university's student psychiatric outpatient service during a several month period.
- Subjects
SEX differences (Biology); PSYCHIATRIC clinics; MENTAL health; UTILIZATION of psychiatric clinics; MEDICAL care; POPULATION
- Publication
Social Forces, 1979, Vol 58, Issue 2, p557
- ISSN
0037-7732
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2577606