Background Although mental disorders are significant predictors of educational attainment throughout the entire educational career, most research on mental disorders among students has focused on the primary and secondary school years. Methods The World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys were used to examine the associations of mental disorders with college entry and attrition by comparing college students (n = 1,572) and nonstudents in the same age range (18–22; n = 4,178), including nonstudents who recently left college without graduating (n = 702) based on surveys in 21 countries (4 low/lower-middle income, 5 upper middle-income, 1 lower-middle or upper-middle at the times of two different surveys, and 11 high income). Lifetime and 12-month prevalence and age-of-onset of DSM-IV anxiety, mood, behavioural and substance disorders were assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Results One-fifth (20.3%) of college students had 12-month DSM-IV/CIDI disorders. 83.1% of these cases had pre-matriculation onsets. Disorders with pre-matriculation onsets were more important than those with post-matriculation onsets in predicting subsequent college attrition, with substance disorders and, among women, major depression the most important such disorders. Only 16.4% of students with 12-month disorders received any 12-month healthcare treatment for their mental disorders. Conclusions Mental disorders are common among college students, have onsets that mostly occur prior to college entry, in the case of pre-matriculation disorders are associated with college attrition, and are typically untreated. Detection and effective treatment of these disorders early in the college career might reduce attrition and improve educational and psychosocial functioning.

Background To examine barriers to initiation and continuation of mental health treatment among individuals with common mental disorders. Methods Data are from the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys. Representative household samples were interviewed face-to-face in 24 countries. Reasons to initiate and continue treatment were examined in a subsample (n= 63,678) and analyzed at different levels of clinical severity. Results Among those with a DSM-IV disorder in the past twelve months, low perceived need was the most common reason for not initiating treatment and more common among moderate and mild than severe cases. Women and younger people with disorders were more likely to recognize a need for treatment. Desire to handle the problem on one’s own was the most common barrier among respondents with a disorder who perceived a need for treatment (63.8%). Attitudinal barriers were much more important than structural barriers both to initiating and continuing treatment. However, attitudinal barriers dominated for mild-moderate cases and structural barriers for severe cases. Perceived ineffectiveness of treatment was the most commonly reported reason for treatment dropout (39.3%) followed by negative experiences with treatment providers (26.9% of respondents with severe disorders). Conclusions Low perceived need and attitudinal barriers are the major barriers to seeking and staying in treatment among individuals with common mental disorders worldwide. Apart from targeting structural barriers, mainly in countries with poor resources, increasing population mental health literacy is an important endeavor worldwide.

We previously reported on the cross-national epidemiology of ADHD from the first 10 countries in the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys. The current report expands those previous findings to the 20 nationally or regionally representative WMH surveys that have now collected data on adult ADHD. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) was administered to 26,744 respondents in these surveys in high-, upper-middle-, and low-/lower-middle-income countries (68.5% mean response rate). Current DSM-IV/CIDI adult ADHD prevalence averaged 2.8% across surveys and was higher in high (3.6%)- and upper-middle (3.0%)- than low-/lower-middle (1.4%)-income countries. Conditional prevalence of current ADHD averaged 57.0% among childhood cases and 41.1% among childhood subthreshold cases. Adult ADHD was significantly related to being male, previously married, and low education. Adult ADHD was highly comorbid with DSM-IV/CIDI anxiety, mood, behavior, and substance disorders and significantly associated with role impairments (days out of role, impaired cognition, and social interactions) when controlling for comorbidities. Treatment seeking was low in all countries and targeted largely to comorbid conditions rather than to ADHD. These results show that adult ADHD is prevalent, seriously impairing, and highly comorbid but vastly under-recognized and undertreated across countries and cultures.

Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the views of WHO or other sponsoring organizations, agencies, or governments. Additional Contributions:We thank the staff of the WMH Data Collection and Data Analysis Coordination centres for assistance with instrumentation, fieldwork, and consultation on data analysis. Additional Information:A complete list of all within-country and cross-national WMH publications can be found at http:// www.hcp.med.harvard.edu/wmh/. Abstract IMPORTANCE-Previous research has documented significant variation in the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) depending on the type of traumatic experience (TE) and history of TE exposure, but the relatively small sample sizes in these studies resulted in a number of unresolved basic questions.OBJECTIVE-To examine disaggregated associations of type of TE history with PTSD in a large cross-national community epidemiologic data set. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS-The World Health Organization World MentalHealth surveys assessed 29 TE types (lifetime exposure, age at first exposure) with DSM-IV PTSD that was associated with 1 randomly selected TE exposure (the random TE) for each respondent. Surveys were administered in 20 countries (n = 34 676 respondents) from 2001 to 2012. Data were analyzed from October 1, 2015, to September 1, 2016. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES-Prevalence Methods SamplesThe WMH surveys are a coordinated set of community epidemiologic surveys in countries throughout the world. 17 This report focuses on the 22 WMH surveys in 20 countries that assessed lifetime PTSD after randomly selected TEs (using the procedures described below). Three surveys that assessed these random TEs were conducted in countries classified by the World Bank as low or lower-middle income (Colombia, Peru, and Ukraine); 7 in countries classified as upper-middle income (Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia [administered after the previously mentioned Colombian survey, when the country income rating had increased], Lebanon, Mexico, Romania, and South Africa); and 12 in countries classified as high income (Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Spain [separate national and regional surveys], and the United States) (eTable 1 in the Supplement). Each survey was based on a multistage clustered area Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript probability sample of adult household residents. The target population was the entire country in most surveys, all urbanized areas in 3 (Colombia, Mexico, and Peru), and specific metropolitan areas in 4 (Sao Paulo, Brazil; Medellin, Colombia; Murcia, Spain; and 6 cities in Japan). Response rates ranged from 45.9% (France) to 97.2% (Medellin), with a mean rate of 71.3% across surveys. This study was approved by the institutional review boards of the participating institutions. Participants provided written or oral informed consent using procedures approved by...

The distribution of STB in first-year students is widespread, and relatively independent of socio-demographic risk profile. Multivariate risk algorithms based on a high number of risk factors are indicated to efficiently link high-risk status with effective preventive interventions.