Kathy and Annelies:  I'd like to add my .02 cents to the schizophrenia
discussion, which may not necessarily clear anything up.  According to the
NIMH, schizophrenia prevalence is 0.9% or about one out of every one
thousand adults.  It accounts for the largest proportion of the chronically
mentally ill who are disabled and the largest proportion of the homeless
who are mentally ill.  The rate varies by age, sex, social class and urban
vs. rural.  This prevalence rate means that somewhere around 1.5 million
people in the US are affected.  On major text by Willams and Torrens states
that "Transcultural studies of mental illness have demonstrated remarkably
uniform prevalence rates for schizophrenia in different countries and
cultures." (page 220)  So, one might say that Annelies is correct.

On the other hand, there is significant reason to doubt this consistency
because of the fact that 10% of schizophrenic cases can be traced to a
close family relative with schizo.  "However, modern techniques for the
study of chromosomal aberrations do not isolate gentic differences, and
even with clinical evidence suggesting a biologic component, critics would
argue that a diagnosis of schizophrenia is highly subjective, and that the
perception of behavior as being schiophrenic is relative to the
environmental context."

Facts and figures bfrom the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Admin
(no. 4--1986)  Wash, DC:  USDHSS.

USDHHS Sterring Committee on the Chronically Mentally Ill (1980).  Toward a
National Plan for the chronically mentally ill.  USPHS.

Goldman, H. Adams, N and Taube, C.  (1983).  Deinstitutionalization:  The
data demythologicalized.  Hopsital and Community Psych, 34: 129-34.

Williams, S and Torrens, P.  Introduction to Health Services, 4th Ed.
Delmar Publishers.  pp.220.

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