研究:城市居民更易患上精神疾病

Country-dwellers often say the constant noise, traffic and crowds of the city would drive them mad.

Well, they might be right, according to the latest research.

City residents are more likely to develop mental illnesses such as schizophrenia than those who live in rural areas, a study has found.

Researchers from Cardiff University examined the lifestyles of more than 200,000 people in Sweden and found that those who lived in urban areas were more at risk from psychosis than people who lived in villages.

The experts don't know exactly why this is but they suggest that town and city residents are more likely to be ostracised by those around them.

They are more likely to experience discrimination if they do not fit in, which can lead to them feeling anxious and even developing mental illnesses.

Dr Stanley Zammit, who lead the research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, said: 'The clearest geographic pattern within this distribution of rates is that urban areas have a higher incidence of schizophrenia than rural areas.'

He also added that people living in towns and cities were more likely to develop other mental illnesses that result in personality changes - a condition known as non-affective psychosis. It is not the first time statistics have shown that country life is healthier.

Earlier this year an official report found that village dwellers lived an average of two years longer than those living in towns and cities.

According to figures from the Office of National Statistics, men who live in the country are likely to live for between 78 and 79 years, while those in towns can expect to survive to an age of 76.

Women on average survive to their 81st birthday in towns, but live to between 82 and 83 in the country.

The small market town of Wimborne Minster in rural Dorset was named the healthiest place to live.

農村居民常常抱怨，城市裏沒完沒了的嘈雜聲、繁忙的交通和擁擠的人羣能把他們逼瘋。

根據最新研究，他們的說法也許是對的。

一項研究發現，城市居民比農村居民更易患上諸如精神分裂症一類的精神疾病。

卡迪夫大學的研究人員對20多萬瑞典居民的生活方式進行了研究。研究發現，那些生活在城市的居民比農村地區居民患上精神病的可能性更大。

專家們目前還不知道導致這一現象的確切原因，但他們指出，城鎮居民更容易受到周圍的人的排斥。

如果他們不能融入環境，會更容易遭到歧視，而這會使他們感到焦慮，甚至患上精神疾病。

斯坦利•尚密特博士是這一研究的領頭人，他說：“分佈率所呈現出的最清晰的地理格局是，城市地區的精神分裂症發病率要高於農村地區。”該研究發表在《普通精神病學紀要》上。

他還說，城鎮居民更容易患上導致性格變化的其它精神疾病，這種疾病被稱爲非情感性精神病。這並非頭一回有資料表明農村生活更健康。

今年早些時候，（英國）一份官方報告指出，農村居民的平均壽命要比城鎮居民多兩年。

根據英國國家統計局的數據，生活在農村地區的男性人口預期壽命爲78至79歲，而生活在城市地區的男性的預期壽命僅爲76歲。

城市女性的預期壽命爲81歲，而農村女性的預期壽命則達到82歲至83歲。

位於英國鄉村地區多塞特郡的溫伯恩明斯特小集鎮被稱爲是最健康的居住地。

Vocabulary:

schizophrenia: a mental illness in which a person becomes unable to link thought, emotion and behaviour, leading to withdrawal from reality and personal relationships（精神分裂症）

psychosis: a serious mental illness that affects the whole personality（精神病）

ostracise: to refuse to let somebody be a member of a social group; to refuse to meet or talk to somebody（排擠；排斥）

market town:a town of moderate size in a rural area, where a regular market is held <英>集市城鎮（指每星期有一、兩次露天集市貿易的城鎮）