Assessment of the prevalence of psychiatric disorder in young adults.
BACKGROUND
The effectiveness of different assessment procedures for determining prevalence rates of psychiatric disorder in young adults was investigated.


METHODS
In a two-stage multi-method procedure, the Young Adult Self-Report, the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN), the Structured Interview for Personality Disorders (Revised), and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale were used to assess prevalence rates in 706 19-24-year-olds from the general population. Furthermore, individuals' subjective perception of distress and referral to mental health services were assessed.


RESULTS
The prevalence of any SCAN/DSM-III-R disorder was 19.3% (95% confidence interval: 11.2-27.4%). Most subjects who received a SCAN/DSM-III-R diagnosis were only mildly impaired. The highest prevalence rates of dysfunctioning (GAF score below 61) without referral to mental health services were for dissociative disorder (2.3%), sleep disorder (2.1%), alcohol dependence (1.3%) and affective disorder (1.8%).


CONCLUSIONS
Instruments that assess functional impairment in addition to DSM-III-R diagnoses are indispensable in prevalence studies.
Ferdinand
R F
RF
Sophia Children's Hospital/Erasmus University Rotterdam, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, The Netherlands.
van der Reijden
M
M
Verhulst
F C
FC
Nienhuis
J
J
Giel
R
R
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires