Psychiatric case notes: symptoms of mental illness and their attribution at the Maudsley Hospital, 1924-35

Case notes of patients treated at the Maudsley Hospital during the interwar period provided data about diagnosis, symptoms and beliefs about mental illness. In the absence of effective treatments, patients were investigated in detail in the hope that connections between disease processes might be revealed. We analysed a randomly-selected sample of 700 patients taken equally from 1924, 1928, 1931 and 1935. Eight groups (three representing psychosis and five indicating psychological disorders) were identified on the basis of symptom clusters. Formal diagnosis did not correlate with clusters. Although there was a measure of agreement between patients and doctors about the cause of mental illness, stigma may have inhibited discussion of some themes. Psychiatric diagnosis was informed by symptoms but not determined by them. In an era before classification systems were tested for reliability, diagnosis was fluid, reflecting changing hypotheses about causation, pathology and treatment. Attributions were associated with diagnosis rather than symptoms.