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What is Comorbidity – Fact or Artefact?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Hans-Ulrich Wittchen
Hans-Ulrich Wittchen*
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (Clinical Institute), Kraepelinstrasse 10, 80804 München, Germany
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Extract

Comorbidity can be described broadly as the presence of more than one disorder in a person in a defined period of time (Wittchen & Essau, 1993). Stimulated by the introduction of explicit diagnostic criteria and operationalised diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–III; APA, 1980) and the Diagnostic Criteria for Research in ICD–10 (WHO, 1991), numerous studies in the 1980s and early 1990s, have assessed the extent, the nature, and more recently, the implications of comorbidity for a better understanding of mental disorders. Most studies investigated the association of anxiety and mood disorders, but increasingly there are also studies looking into the association of mood disorders with other disorders (such as somatoform and substance use disorders (Wittchen et al, 1993, 1996)) as well as with somatic conditions (axis II) and personality disorders (axis III).

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 168 , Issue S30: Comorbidity of Mood Disorders , June 1996 , pp. 7 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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References

American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn) (DSM–III). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Wittchen, H.-U. & Essau, C. A. (1993) Epidemiology of anxiety disorders. In Psychiatry (ed. Michels, R.), pp. 1–25. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.Google Scholar
Wittchen, H.-U., Essau, C. A., Rief, W., et al (1993) Assessment of somatoform disorders and comorbidity pattern with CIDI-findings in psychosomatic in-patients. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 3, 87–100.Google Scholar
Wittchen, H.-U., Perkonigg, A., et al (1996) Comorbidity of mental disorders and substance use disorders. European Addiction Research, 2, 36–48.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1991) ICD–10, Chapter V, Mental and Behavioural Disorders. Diagnostic Criteria for Research, Draft for Field Trials. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
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