title: Lifetime and six-month prevalence of mental disorders in the Munich Follow-Up Study.
abstract: The Lifetime and 6 month DSM-III prevalence rates of mental disorders from an adult general population sample of former West Germany are reported. The most frequent mental disorders (lifetime) from the Munich Follow-up Study were anxiety disorders (13.87%), followed by substance (13.51%) and affective (12.90%) disorders. Within anxiety disorders, simple and social phobia (8.01%) were the most common, followed by agoraphobia (5.47%) and panic disorder (2.39%). Females had about twice the rates of males for affective (18.68% versus 6.42%), anxiety (18.13% versus 9.07%), and somatization disorders (1.60% versus 0.00%); males had about three times the rates of substance disorders (21.23% versus 6.11%) of females. Being widowed and separated/divorced was associated with high rates of major depression. Most disordered subjects had at least two diagnoses (69%). The most frequent comorbidity pattern was anxiety and affective disorders. Simple and social phobia began mostly in childhood or early adolescence, whereas agoraphobia and panic disorder had a later average age of onset. The majority of the cases with both anxiety and depression had depression clearly after the occurrence of anxiety. The DIS-DSM-III findings of our study have been compared with both ICD-9 diagnoses assigned by clinicians independently as well as other epidemiological studies conducted with a comparable methodology.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry, Clinical Institute, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: H U
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Wittchen
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Essau
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: von Zerssen
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Krieg
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zaudig
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology