Prevalence and incidence of mental disorders estimated by a health questionnaire and a psychiatric case register

• Published in: Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
• Main Author: Helgason, T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1978
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1978.tb06937.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-0447.1978.tb06937.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1978.tb06937.x

Some of the limitations and potentialities of the use of a psychiatric case register are briefly indicated. The special opportunities which record‐linkage offers in Iceland make it possible to carry out new epidemiological studies which may help us in identifying high risk groups on a broad scale. As indicated in earlier studies, the incidence rate of mental disorders as measured by first psychiatric consultations has not changed with time. The expectancy of consulting a psychiatrist on account of functional psychoses, neuroses or alcoholism is only about 40 % of the expectancy of developing these diseases. Of the population aged 20–49 years, 13.5% have consulted a psychiatrist or been in contact with the institutions reporting to the psychiatric case register. For the estimation of prevalence of mental disorders with a health questionnaire it is necessary to add several questions related to symptoms of alcohol abuse. When this is done, the self‐reported prevalence of mental disorders in the population of this most productive age group is approximately 20 %, one half of this being related to alcohol abuse among men. As there are relatively more patients among those not responding to the questionnaire the total prevalence is probably not less than 22 %. Studies based on the psychiatric case register would thus only account for 40–60 % of the total morbidity, depending on whether only contact with psychiatrists or with all the reporting institutions were included.