ABSTRACT
Present prevalence studies in Israel are limited to mental hospitals Halevi and to a psychiatric out-patient clinic. However many persons with emotional disorders do not come to the attention of psychiatric services at all. The chapter determines the prevalence of emotional disorders as recognized by the family doctors, among adults in a defined general practice population. The denominator data for year of birth, sex, and country of birth were abstracted from the Kiryat Hayovel population census which had been carried out in June 1963. The universal data of the Recognized Emotional Disorders population were abstracted from the face sheet of the medical record. The higher prevalence among older women from Europe can be explained on a psychological and cultural basis. The European women, on the other hand, with their small families, have a much more limited function and become unoccupied and lonely.
