A LONGITUDIAL STUDY IN PSYCHIATRIC EPIDEMIOLOGY

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This application concerns the extension of a longitudinal study in psychiatric epidemiology (the Stirling County Study in Atlantic Canada) so that it will provide a 40-year perspective on the prevalence, incidence, clinical outcomes, and mortality risk associated with psychiatric disorders. Consistent data-collection procedures were used to study representative samples of adults in 1952, 1962-64, and 1970. In each field phase after the first, the same procedures were used to conduct follow-up investigations of individuals who had entered the study earlier. These procedures involve interviewing subjects with a structured schedule that covers depression, anxiety, physical health, and socio-demographic factors along with interviewing general physicians about the psychiatric and medical histories of the same subjects. The specific aims of the research are to: 1.) select and investigate a new sample of 1350 subjects representing the adults of Stirling County in 1992; 2.) locate and re-interview 1400 former subjects expected to be alive in 1992; 3.) gather mortality information about the approximately 950 former subjects who can be expected to have died; and 4). expand the interview protocol to include portions of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) and, for persons 65 years and older, the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination. The purpose of the latter additions is to lay the foundation for comparing findings from this study with those from the five U.S. sites of NIMH's Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) Program, those from a similar study in Edmonton, Canada, and those to be derived from a national study in Canada of the epidemiology of cognitive impairment. Diagnostic computer programs are available for analyzing information from subjects, and computer-aided procedures have been prepared for categorizing the data given by physicians. Lifetable methods, log linear analysis, and survival regressions will be used for calculating rates and testing the significance of associations with risk factors. The main objective of the research is to provide information about the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders over time in one place of study while also comparing findings from this one place to those from other areas where similar research has been conducted.