[The image of psychiatry in the "Leipziger Volkszeitung" - historical longitudinal study]

This is the first paper to analyse historical changes and trends in psychiatric reports in one German daily newspaper.

A total of 4362 issues of the Leipziger Volkszeitung from 14 selected years of publication, 2 subsequent every 15 years starting in 1897, was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, thus covering all relevant eras of German history (with the exception of the years of World War I and the era of "National Socialism").

The presentation of psychiatric issues changed from rather neutral reports to negatively connotated reports. On the other hand the language used altered significantly: from mostly paraphrases to the use of exact psychiatric terms. Unexpectedly, however, this did not have a positive or smoothing impact on the character of the report.

Further and more extensive studies are necessary to find out whether our findings are suggestive to a general tendency toward stigmatisation and selective negative reporting on the subject of psychiatry in the history of German daily papers.