[Depressive disorders and use of health services in the French population according to the Health Barometer 2005].
BACKGROUND
Whereas depressive disorders are major problems of public health, there is few reliable data in general population in France.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to estimate the 12-month prevalence rates of depressive disorders and use of health services in French general population, and to identify the sociodemographic variables associated with Major Depressive Episode (MDE) and use of health services for mental disorder.


METHODS
This study was carried out from the data of the Health Barometer 2005, a random survey about several topics of health. Thirty thousand five hundred and fourteen individuals from 12 to 75 years were interviewed by telephone from October 2004 to February 2005. Depressive disorders were assessed by a standardized tool (CIDIsf) according to the classification of the DSM-IV (16710 individuals have answered the questions of mental health: 60% of the individuals aged 15 or older).


RESULTS
7.8% of the individuals interviewed reported a MDE over the last 12 months. In majority, the episodes were relatively serious (0.4% of mild episode and 2.9% of single episode) and were mainly associated with sex, age and marital status. Among these individuals, only 38.3% had consulted a health service for mental health during that period and 10.8% had psychotherapy. The main associated factors for use of services were age, educational level and depression severity.


CONCLUSIONS
These first national reliable dataset confirms the extent of depressive disorders in general population and highlights the problems of use of health services and treatments. Also, this study shows that there are instruments and methodologies making it possible to study mental disorders and use of health services in general population. It suggests to look further into the exploration of these issue and to develop this kind of survey to study other problems of mental health.
Lamboy
B
B
Direction des Affaires Scientifiques, Institut National de Prévention et d'Education pour la Santé (INPES), France.
Léon
C
C
Guilbert
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors