Old and mad in Victorian Oxford

A study of patients aged 60 and over admitted to the Warneford and Littlemore Asylums in the nineteenth century

Bibliographic Data

ID19444783
AuthorsGraeme Yorston (0000-0001-7045-9202, St Andrews Hospital, Billing Road, Northampton, NN1 5DG, UK., corresponding author), Camilla Haw (St Andrews Hospital, Northampton)
Year2005
Volume16
Issue4
Pages395-421
Publication date2005-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0957-154X • E-ISSN: 1740-2360
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0957154x05054079
PMID16450485
OpenAlexW2059144963
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited29

This is a historical case note analysis of older patients admitted to the Warneford and Littlemore Asylums in nineteenth-century Oxford. Of 1044 admissions to the Warneford, 93 patients were aged over 60 (8.9%). At Littlemore, 998 of a total of 5464 admissions were aged over 60 (18.3%). High levels of psychopathology were found, as in other studies examining patients of all ages, and were similar for the two institutions. The largest difference was in the death rate, which was much higher for Littlemore Asylum. This resulted from the preponderance of patients with organic diagnoses who were admitted to Littlemore, many of whom died shortly afterwards

Psychiatry · Psychopathology · Sociology · Demography · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · History of Medicine Studies · Medicine · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Pediatrics

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