Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in the United States. Results from the National Comorbidity Survey

BACKGROUND: This study presents estimates of lifetime and 12-month prevalence of 14 DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders from the National Comorbidity Survey, the first survey to administer a structured psychiatric interview to a national probability sample in the United States. METHODS: The DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders among persons aged 15 to 54 years in the noninstitutionalized civilian population of the United States were assessed with data collected by lay interviewers using a revised version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. RESULTS: Nearly 50% of respondents reported at least one lifetime disorder, and close to 30% reported at least one 12-month disorder. The most common disorders were major depressive episode, alcohol dependence, social phobia, and simple phobia. More than half of all lifetime disorders occurred in the 14% of the population who had a history of three or more comorbid disorders. These highly comorbid people also included the vast majority of people with severe disorders. Less than 40% of those with a lifetime disorder had ever received professional treatment, and less than 20% of those with a recent disorder had been in treatment during the past 12 months. Consistent with previous risk factor research, it was found that women had elevated rates of affective disorders and anxiety disorders, that men had elevated rates of substance use disorders and antisocial personality disorder, and that most disorders declined with age and with higher socioeconomic status. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of psychiatric disorders is greater than previously thought to be the case. Furthermore, this morbidity is more highly concentrated than previously recognized in roughly one sixth of the population who have a history of three or more comorbid disorders. This suggests that the causes and consequences of high comorbidity should be the focus of research attention. The majority of people with psychiatric disorders fail to obtain professional treatment. Even among people with a lifetime history of three or more comorbid disorders, the proportion who ever obtain specialty sector mental health treatment is less than 50%. These results argue for the importance of more outreach and more research on barriers to professional help-seeking

Methodological studies of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) in the US national comorbidity survey (NCS)

This paper reports the results of methodological studies carried out in conjunction with the US National Comorbidity Survey (NCS) to evaluate Version 1.0 of the World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). These studies relied on recent survey data collection methodology literature to investigate problems regarding question comprehension, instruction comprehension, respondent motivation to report accurately, and regarding the limits of respondent ability to report accurately. Insights and strategies developed by survey methodologists were used to modify the CIDI in an effort to address these problems. The paper describes these strategies and methodological studies that evaluated their effects, including a clinical reappraisal study and a field experiment that evaluated the impact of question modifications on prevalence estimates. The paper closes with a discussion of remaining methodological problems with the CIDI and potentially useful future studies that might be able to develop solutions to these problems. Copyright © 1998 Whurr Publishers Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34217/1/33_ftp.pd

The US National Comorbidity Survey: Overview and future directions

This report presents an overview of the results of the US National Comorbidity Survey (NCS) (Kessler et al., 1994) and future directions based on these results. The NCS is a survey that was mandated by the US Congress to study the comorbidity of substance use disorders and nonsubstance psychiatric disorders in the general population of the US. (...

Parental education and children's online health information seeking: Beyond the digital divide debate

Research has shown that increasing numbers of teenagers are going online to find health information, but it is unclear whether there are disparities in the prevalence of online health seeking among young Internet users associated with social and economic conditions. Existing literature on Internet uses by adults indicates that low income, less educated, and minority individuals are less likely to be online health seekers. Based on the analysis of data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project for the US, this study finds that teens of low education parents are either as likely as or even more likely than teens of high education parents to seek online health information. Multiple regression analysis shows that the higher engagement in health seeking by teens of low education parents is related to a lower prevalence of parental Internet use, suggesting that some of these teens may be seeking online health information on behalf of their low education parents. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the issues of the digital divide and digital empowerment.Adolescents Digital divide Digital empowerment Internet Health information seeking USA Socioeconomic status (SES)

Numerical Simulation of Fire Suppression in Stilted Wooden Buildings with Fine Water Mist Based on FDS

In this paper, to reflect a real fire combustion situation of stilted buildings with a typical wooden structure, we used FDS numerical simulation software to study the suppression effect of a fine-water-mist fire-extinguishing system under different working conditions. The influences of different mist droplet diameters, spray flows, and nozzle densities on the temperature change in the combustion area were analyzed and compared. The particle sizes of fog droplets exhibited a significant impact, indicating that the smaller the particle size, the faster the vaporization rate and the better the cooling effect. The cooling effect was better when the particle size was 150 μm or less when compared to the particle sizes of 200 and 300 μm. As the spray flow rate and nozzle density were increased, the fire field temperature decreased, and the cooling effect was enhanced, optimal at a water-mist flow rate of 8 L/min. Therefore, given the possible working conditions, the spray flow rate and the nozzle density should be high, while a suitable droplet size should be selected to achieve the best fire-extinguishing effect