RT Journal
A1 Insel TR, Fenton WS
T1 Psychiatric epidemiology: It’s not just about counting anymore
JF Archives of General Psychiatry
JO Archives of General Psychiatry
YR 2005
FD June 1
VO 62
IS 6
SP 590
OP 592
DO 10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.590
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.590
AB 
Over the past 2 decades, the National Institute of Mental Health supported ambitious population-based efforts in psychiatric epidemiology. The landmark 5-site Epidemiological Catchment Area (ECA) study of the 1980s provided the first comprehensive picture of the prevalence of DSM-III mental disorders in the United States.1 A decade later, the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS) was the first study to estimate the prevalence of DSM-III-R mental disorders in a nationally representative US sample.2 These studies established the methods of modern psychiatric epidemiology in the United States, including the use of reliable lay-administered structured diagnostic assessment tools to ascertain standardized diagnostic criteria,3- 4 the comparison of clinical interviews with lay interviews to evaluate diagnostic validity,5- 7 and the application of sampling strategies to identify nationally representative samples. Combined with earlier and richly informative international studies in psychiatric epidemiology,8- 10 the ECA, NCS, and related surveys demonstrated that mental disorders were highly prevalent in the general population and placed mental illness squarely on the nation’s and the world’s public health agenda.11