Schizophrenia Linked To Income Inequality

City dwellers have an increased risk of schizophrenia. And now some researchers think they know the reasons: Too many people living too close together along with stress linked to income inequality and crime.

According to British researcher James Kirkbride, with the University of Cambridge: “Although we already know that schizophrenia tends to be elevated in more urban communities, it was unclear why. Our research suggests that more densely populated, more deprived and less equal communities experience higher rates of schizophrenia and other similar disorders. This is important because other research has shown that many health and social outcomes also tend to be optimal when societies are more equal.

“Our research adds to a wider and growing body of evidence that inequality seems to be important in affecting many health outcomes, now possibly including serious mental illness. Our data seems to suggest that both absolute and relative levels of deprivation predict the incidence of schizophrenia.”

The study looked at data collected in East London.