The epidemiology of common mental disorders from age 20 to 50: results from the prospective Zurich cohort Study

Abstract

Background:There are only a small number of prospective studies that have systematically evaluated standardised diagnostic criteria for mental disorder for more than a decade. The aim of this study is to present the approximated overall and sex-specific cumulative incidence of mental disorder in the Zurich cohort study, a prospective cohort study of 18–19 years olds from the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, who were followed through age 50.Method:A stratified sample of 591 participants were interviewed with the Structured Psychopathological Interview and Rating of the Social Consequences of Psychological Disturbances for Epidemiology, a semi-structured interview that uses a bottom-up approach to assess the past-year presence of 15 psychiatric syndromes. Seven interview waves took place between 1979 and 2008. Approximated cumulative incidence was estimated using Kaplan–Meier methods.Results:Rates of mental disorder were considerably higher than those generally reported in cross-sectional surveys. We found rates ranging from 32.5% for major depressive disorder to 1.2% for Bipolar I disorder. The cumulative probability of experiencing any of the mental disorders assessed by age 50 was 73.9%, the highest reported to date. We also found that rates differed by sex for most disorders, with females generally reporting higher rates of mood, anxiety and phobic disorder, and males reporting higher rates of substance- and alcohol-related disorders.Conclusions:These findings confirm those of other long-term prospective studies that indicate the nearly universal nature of disturbances of emotion and behaviour across the life span. Greater community awareness of the normative nature of these experiences is warranted. An important area of future research is study long-term course and stability to determine who among those with such disturbances suffer from chronic disabling mental disorders. Such longitudinal studies may aid in directing services and intervention efforts where they are most needed.

Latent Trajectories of Common Mental Health Disorder Risk Across 3 Decades of Adulthood in a Population-Based Cohort

“…Estimates from large-scale, cross-sectional population surveys that were initially criticized for being too high [1][2][3][4][5][6] have been replicated 7,8 and followed by even higher estimates of cumulative risk from prospective studies [9][10][11][12][13] that repeatedly assessed mental health disorder over time. For example, prospectively generated prevalence estimates in the Baltimore site of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) study were 2 to 12 times higher than those estimated retrospectively, corroborating the idea that retrospective assessment may underestimate mental health disorder frequency owing to reliance on recall.…”

“…Although a number of studies, such as that of Colman et al, 16 have estimated trajectories of symptoms over time, descriptions of trajectories of mental health disorder are scarce. The few diagnostic studies 9,[17][18][19][20] that have followed population-based samples of adults for more than 20 years have provided important information about the incidence and course of specific disorders. Along with longitudinal studies 19,21-29 of children followed into early adulthood, these indicate a substantial degree of heterogeneity in course and comorbidity with other mental health disorders over time.…”

Common Mental Disorder Among Alcohol and Drug Abusers: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…7 Disorders caused by the use of drugs, regardless of their type, presented a cumulative incidence of 16.78% (95% CI 15.18-18.54), being 20.50% among men and 13.39% among women in South Africa. 14 In pregnant women, the use of marijuana was associated with a higher probability for the development of depression. 8 Regarding age, this study showed that age ≤25 years was associated with a higher probability of developing CMD in the population studied.…”

What we know, what we do not know, and where are we heading? Efficacy and acceptability of psychological interventions for depression

“…Summers & Barber, 2010). Recent studies have shown that the approximated cumulative incidence of depression diagnosis from childhood to adulthood is between 32.54 and 51% (Rohde et al 2012;Angst et al 2015).…”

“…Summers & Barber, 2010). Recent studies have shown that the approximated cumulative incidence of depression diagnosis from childhood to adulthood is between 32.54 and 51% (Rohde et al 2012;Angst et al 2015).In the past several decades, over 400 randomised clinical trials have investigated the efficacy of psychotherapy for depression (Cuijpers, 2015). Despite the heated debate regarding the superiority of one treatment over others, there is fairly wide acceptance of the 'Dodo Bird Verdict ' (Luborsky et al 1975), at least in the case of depression, suggesting that all treatments are more or less equally effective (Cuijpers et al 2008;Barth et al 2013).…”