Gender differences in psychiatric admissions: the influence of culture and social structure

Abstract EN

Retrospective analysis of all psychiatric admissions in Al Ain District over 5 years (n=2745) showed a consistent excess of male over female inpatients by a ratio of 1.49 :1.

To explore this phenomenon all admissions during a period of three months were prospectively assessed using a modified form of the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospital observation sheet.

In addition to sociodemographic characteristics, personal history, medical and psychiatric history, symptom profile and investigations, the assessment also covered treatment outcome as assessed by the clinical Global Impression Scale.

A number of gender differences emerged Past psychiatric history revealed that male patients had more often sought contact with psychiatric services and had more frequent previous admissions when compared to their female counterparts.

Apart from birth order, no differences were found in the circumstances of upbringing, or that of development.

Male patients with a psychotic disorder more often exhibited delusions of persecution and received a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Patients admitted for alcohol and drug related problems were exclusively males.

On the other hand increasing number of female patients presented with affective and conversion symptoms and consequent to which received diagnoses of affective disorder and conversion disorder.

Female patients were more often considered to be markedly improved on discharge than their male counterparts, perhaps due to the different diagnostic profile.

One way of explaining these findings would be to regard this as resulting from the influence of gender characteristics in the manifestation of psychopathology but the authors feel that this could more readily be explained by the idiosyncratic social fabric of the UAE.