Aims, organization, and initial studies of the Cross-National Project

The US-UK Cross-National Project is conducting a series of trans-Atlanti comparisons of psychiatric practice and psychiatric disorders. The inital studies investigated the large US-UK cross-national differences reported in the public mental hospital statistics on adult admission rates of schizophrenia and the manic-depressive disorders. Three general strategies were adopted: (1) semi-structured interviews with hospitalized patients aged 20-59 years; (2) rating of videotapes by samples of psychiatrists; and (3) systematic examination of case records. The results showed that routine hospital diagnoses were based on differing criteria in the two countries and it was this that accounted for the reported cross-national differences in admission rates. A method of making internationally reliable diagnoses was demonstrated.