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Prodromes of Depression and Anxiety

The Stirling County Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jane M. Murphy*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114
Arthur M. Sobol
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114
Donald C. Olivier
Affiliation:
Office for Information Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
Richard R. Monson
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
Alexander H. Leighton
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry and Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie Medical School, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4H7
Lisa A. Pratt
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
*
Correspondence

Abstract

A longitudinal investigation of psychiatric epidemiology in a general population (the Stirling County study) has indicated that the incidence of depression and anxiety disorders is low relative to prevalence, because these disorders have long durations. In an average year approximately nine adults among 1000 experience a first-ever episode of one of these disorders. Incident cases over the course of a 16-year follow-up were more likely to have had premonitory symptoms than to have been asymptomatic at the beginning of the study. Among the relatively small number of people who exhibited the clearest prodromal manifestations, incidence was 20 per 1000 annually. It might be possible to intervene before such disorders become fully formed and persistent if the precursors are given attention.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1989 

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