The effect of ethnic density on psychosis incidence

一些种族群体的成员患严重精神疾病的风险高于正常水平，如精神分裂症或双相情感障碍。一些研究将此与来自某些种族群体的人如何孤立联系起来，因此，例如，生活在大部分白色地区的黑人可能更有风险。这被称为种族密度效应。由于这些疾病相对罕见，因此很难同时观察一个以上的非常粗略定义的种族群体。通过大量收集精神病学记录，我将能够比较各种种族群体的经历，并更详细地了解可能导致这种种族密度效应的原因。也有人认为，这种影响可能与某些类型的严重精神疾病，如精神分裂症，比其他人更相关。通过查阅如此大量的健康记录，我将能够比以前更详细地解决这个问题。这项研究将研究生活在一个特定类型的地区如何影响一个人的心理健康。这是特别困难的研究，因为它是很难确定相关的邻居时，查看病人的记录。通常情况下，研究依赖于某人首次被诊断时的居住地址。然而，患有精神疾病的人经常在生病时改变地址，因此很难确定哪个区域是相关的。一些研究人员在研究这一问题时得出结论认为，为了使研究取得进展，需要更好的方法来评估邻里关系的影响。我将在本研究中使用的精神病学记录包括患者在生命中不同时期居住的地区的信息。沿着的是关于每个病人生活史的更详细的信息，这将使我第一次更仔细地观察生活在一个特定的社区如何影响一个人的心理健康。为了从病人的角度了解更多关于这一点，我还将采访那些患有严重精神疾病的人，这些人是从最清楚地显示出这种种族密度效应的种族群体和社区中选出的。这些访谈的结果将用于指导对患者记录的分析，这些记录将构成研究的主要部分。还有人认为，由于这是一种国际现象，研究必须比较一个以上国家的结果。因此，我也将使用荷兰乌得勒支地区患者的健康记录进行类似的研究，看看不同的背景如何改变研究结果。这项研究旨在更多地了解是什么导致了某些种族群体的风险增加。因此，这项研究的结果将有可能帮助防止这种情况在未来发生。通过更多地了解这些群体中发生的事情，这项研究将增加对这些疾病原因的普遍了解，并最终帮助为未来的治疗和预防措施提供信息。

Members of some ethnic groups have a higher than usual risk of developing a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Some studies have linked this to how isolated people from some ethnic groups are, so that, for example, black people living in mostly white areas may be more at risk. This has been termed the ethnic density effect. Because these are relatively uncommon diseases it has been difficult to look at any more than one, very crudely defined, ethnic group at a time. Using a very large collection psychiatric records I will be able to compare the experiences of a wide range of ethnic groups and look in more detail at what might be causing this ethnic density effect. It has also been suggested that this effect may be much more relevant to some types of severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, than others. By accessing such a large collection of health records I will be able to address this question in more detail than has been possible before.The study will look at how living in a particular type of area can effect one's mental health. This is particularly difficult to research as it is hard to identify the relevant neighbourhood when looking at patient records. Typically studies have relied on the address where someone was living when they were first diagnosed. However, people with a mental illness often change address as they become ill, making it difficult to establish which area is relevant. A number of researchers looking at this problem have concluded that, for research to progress, better methods are needed to assess neighbourhoods effects. The psychiatric records that I will use in this study include information about the areas where patients have lived at different times in their life. This, along with further detailed information about each patient's life history, will allow me for the first time to look much more carefully at how living in a particular neighbourhood may affect someone's mental health. To find out more about this from the patient's perspective I will also interview people who have suffered a severe mental illness, chosen from ethnic groups and neighbourhoods that most clearly show this ethnic density effect. The results of these interviews will then be used to guide the analysis of patient records that will make up the main part of the study. It has also been argued that, as this is an international phenomena, it is important that studies compare results in more than one country. Therefore I will also do a similar study using health records for patients in the Utrecht region in Holland to see how a different context changes the study results. The study is intended to find out more about what is causing this increased risk in some ethnic groups. The results of this research will therefore have the potential to help prevent this occurring in the future. By finding out more about what is happening in these groups the study will add to what is generally known about the causes of these diseases and ultimately help inform future treatments and preventative measures.