Prevalence of affective disorder in a sample of young men.
To evaluate the prevalence of depression among young men and the relationship between affective disturbances and drug- or alcohol-use patterns, the author mailed a questionnaire to male students and nonacademic staff, aged 21-25 years, at the University of California, San Diego. Of the 964 men responding, 173 (18%) reported a history of depression, including 69 (7%) whose depressions were serious enough to result in a major life upset. The 318 respondents with some alcohol- or drug- related life impairment (33%) were unevenly distributed among the three depressive history groups, with 44% to 48% of those with depressions also reporting substance problems while the same was true for only 30% of the depression-free men. The author advises clinicians to consider the possibility that a depressive disturbance in young populations may occur in relation to substance intake.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D002140:California; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology