Subthreshold syndromes of depression and anxiety in the community.
Nearly 50% of individuals in the community meet threshold or subthreshold diagnostic criteria for depression or anxiety, with depression being far more common. Co-occurrence of anxiety and depression is common, as the majority of individuals who experience anxiety also manifest threshold- or subthreshold-level depression. In the current study, addition of subthreshold categories improved the coverage of treated cases in the community by nearly a third; 61% of subjects were diagnosed according to threshold criteria while 89% were diagnosed according to subthreshold categories. These results suggest that inclusion of subthreshold-level syndromes enhances the validity of diagnostic systems by increasing the proportion of treated cases that meet diagnostic criteria and by providing a more accurate representation of milder syndromes of depression and anxiety.
Angst
J
J
Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland.
Merikangas
K R
KR
Preisig
M
M
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D009626:Terminology as Topic