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.

农村居民常常抱怨，城市里没完没了的嘈杂声、繁忙的交通和拥挤的人群能把他们逼疯。

根据最新研究，他们的说法也许是对的。

一项研究发现，城市居民比农村居民更易患上诸如精神分裂症一类的精神疾病。

卡迪夫大学的研究人员对20多万瑞典居民的生活方式进行了研究。研究发现，那些生活在城市的居民比农村地区居民患上精神病的可能性更大。

专家们目前还不知道导致这一现象的确切原因，但他们指出，城镇居民更容易受到周围的人的排斥。

如果他们不能融入环境，会更容易遭到歧视，而这会使他们感到焦虑，甚至患上精神疾病。

斯坦利．尚密特博士是这一研究的领头人，他说：“分布率所呈现出的最清晰的地理格局是，城市地区的精神分裂症发病率要高于农村地区。”该研究发表在《普通精神病学纪要》上。

他还说，城镇居民更容易患上导致性格变化的其它精神疾病，这种疾病被称为非情感性精神病。这并非头一回有资料表明农村生活更健康。

今年早些时候，（英国）一份官方报告指出，农村居民的平均寿命要比城镇居民多两年。

根据英国国家统计局的数据，生活在农村地区的男性人口预期寿命为78至79岁，而生活在城市地区的男性的预期寿命仅为76岁。

城市女性的预期寿命为81岁，而农村女性的预期寿命则达到82岁至83岁。

位于英国乡村地区多塞特郡的温伯恩明斯特小集镇被称为是最健康的居住地。

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（排挤；排斥）

market town: a town of moderate size in a rural area, where a regular market is held <英>集市城镇（指每星期有一、两次露天集市贸易的城镇）