ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part is concerned with epidemiological studies of mental disorder, is divided into three subsections based on the Uses of Epidemiology as described by Jeremy Morris. The structure serves to emphasize the link between epidemiological psychiatry and medical epidemiology. The part discusses the importance of the historical context for social and epidemiological psychiatry. It illustrates the extensive Scandinavian tradition of longitudinal enquiry in psychiatry. The part is concerned with the intimate relationship between epidemiological enquiry and clinical psychiatry, which has been a consistent theme in Michael Shepherd’s writings. Despite a great deal of enquiry, the demonstration by J. Goldberger in 1914 of the aetiology of pellagra arguably ‘remains the most elegant demonstration of the way in which the epidemiological method can be applied to elucidate the causes of a neuropsychiatry disorder’.
