During the period 1985-89, 124 physicians were hospitalized in Norwegian psychiatric institutions. The physicians were compared with 91 nurses, 88 enrolled nurses and 110 teachers from three counties who were hospitalized during the same period. The overall rate of admission to psychiatric institutions seemed to be highest for the enrolled nurses and lowest for the teachers. There were few diagnostic differences between the groups. Relatively more of the female teachers were recruited from the middle age group (41-55 years), while the nurses and the enrolled nurses belonged most often to the youngest group (