Mental Disorders from Childhood to Adulthood: The Dunedin Study

目前，很少有关于患者发展史的信息被纳入精神病诊断。因此，不同病因、不同预后的患者往往被混为一谈，就像诊断相同的苹果和橘子一样。这种未知的异质性干扰了医生做出治疗选择，以及科学家确定参与神经科学和遗传学研究的群体。我们的研究旨在根据发病年龄（儿童期、青春期、成年期）和随后的病程（持续性、复发性或限时性）确定精神障碍的发育亚型。我们研究了1000名1972年出生的男性和女性，他们代表了一般人群。他们的心理健康在3岁、5岁、7岁、9岁、11岁、13岁、15岁、18岁、21岁、26岁和32岁时被测量，当时96%的原始队列参与者参与了这项研究。心理健康将在38岁时再次测量。识别发育亚型以提高精神病学诊断的准确性，不仅可以提高治疗和研究的质量，还可以降低成本。

At present, very little information about a patient s developmental history is incorporated into making a psychiatric diagnosis. As a result, patients having different etiology and different prognosis are often mixed as apples and oranges with the same diagnosis. This unknown heterogeneity interferes when doctors make treatment choices and when scientists identify groups to take part in neuroscience and genetics research. Our research aims to identify developmental subtypes within mental disorders, based on age of onset (childhood, adolescence, adulthood) and subsequent course (persistent, recurrent, or time-limited). We study a 1000 men and women, born in 1972, who represent the general population. Their mental health has been measured at ages 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, 26, and 32, when 96% of the original cohort took part. Mental health will be measured again at age 38. Identifying developmental subtypes to improve precision of psychiatric diagnoses should improve the quality of both treatment and research, and also reduce the costs.