The Two Town Study: A Comparison of Psychiatric Illness in Two Contrasting Western Australian Mining Towns

Abstract

The results are presented of a survey of patients identified by their general practitioner as having conspicuous psychiatric morbidity, according to Kessel's (1960) Classification, during a three months general practice survey in two Western Australian towns, one, Gynalla, a new expanding town in the Pilbara area and the other, Jaburoo, an established economically stagnant town in the South West. The findings show a higher general practice consultation attendance rate for both sexes, and a higher rate of psychiatric illness among females, in Jaburoo than in Gynalla. In Gynalla psychiatric cases among women formed a disproportionately high percentage of all general practice attendances. The implications of these findings are discussed.