Though we need to be cautious in how we interpret the evidence, it is nonetheless a matter of interest that schizophrenia has in fact increased in tandem with industrialisation and modernity. In England schizophrenia was rare indeed, if it existed at all, before the eighteenth century, but increased dramatically in prevalence with industrialisation.55 Similar trends can be observed in Ireland, Italy, the United States, and elsewhere.56 However, even at the end of the nineteenth century schizophrenia appears to have been relatively rare compared with the first half of the twentieth century,
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