ON THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA (May 19, 2015)

Today I kept searching the World Wide Web for mental disorders around the globe. One more time, I found World Health Organization’s data concerning the global distribution of schizophrenia. The information comes from 2000 and it covers one-hundred and ninety-two countries. Compared with depression, the prevalence of schizophrenia decreases with economic development (“On the Epidemiology of Depression,” May 18, 2015). Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand take the first three places in the ranking. Looking again at the countries that used to be part of former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina comes one-hundred and seventeenth, Serbia and Montenegro one-hundred and forty-sixth, Macedonia one-hundred and forty-seventh, Croatia one-hundred and sixty-seventh, and Slovenia one-hundred and seventy-first. Again, Kosovo does not appear in the ranking. All these countries appear in roughly the same order as in the case of depression, albeit in reverse. America comes one-hundred and eighty-first, while Australia, Iceland, and Monaco take the last three places in the ranking. Clearly, schizophrenia and depression are at the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to economic development as a proxy for civilization. But the search for links between mental disorders and civilization continues.