Urban environment, marital status and mental disorders. An investigation of psychiatric new referrals to outpatient clinics from a geographically defined sector.

This study examines the distribution of sex, marital status and mental disorders among new referrals to outpatient clinics from two different urban environments. Differences in the distribution of marital status among patients and inhabitants in the two urban environments were tested with the "chi-square" method for each sex separately. In proportion to the population, significantly more married, separated and divorced women were referred from satellite communities than from traditional urban areas. When DSM-III diagnoses were taken into account, there were significantly more married women with "affective and anxiety disorders" in satellite communities. Similar differences were not observed among men in satellite and traditional urban communities. Social environment seems to be a major contributor to mental disorders in women. In addition, sex role plays an important part in the development of "affective and anxiety disorders" in married women. Sex role alone does not explain the findings of this study.