Blacks in Britain have higher rates of psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia

BBC News:

People from broken homes may be more prone to psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia, research suggests.

Researchers said their findings suggest the illnesses are not simply brain diseases, but linked to factors such as social adversity.

They found much higher rates among black people, who were also more likely to come from broken homes.

The study, by London's Institute of Psychiatry, will appear in the journal Psychological Medicine.

The researchers examined data on people in south east London, Bristol and Nottingham, including 780 who showed signs of a psychotic illness.

They found schizophrenia was nine times more common in people from African Caribbean origin, and six times more common in people from black African origin than in the white British population.

In a second paper, they found that separation from one or both parents for more than a year before the age of 16, as a consequence of family breakdown, was associated with a 2.5 fold increased risk of developing psychosis in adulthood.

Family breakdown of this type was found to be more common in the African-Caribbean community (31%) than the white community (18%).

UK minorities "have higher risk of psychoses"