Psychiatric Epidemiology

The discipline of psychiatric epidemiology is, at its most basic level, the study of the patterns of mental disorders. Recently, the scope of the field has greatly expanded and now includes detailed examinations of the natural history of mental disorders, risk factors for the development and persistence of mental disorders, the relationships between physical and mental disorders, studies of the use and outcomes of mental health treatments, and more. This chapter introduces the methodology of psychiatric epidemiology, including issues such as how to identify cases and the different types of study design. It then discusses some of the key studies from the history of psychiatric epidemiology in the twentieth century and a selection of important contemporary epidemiologic studies, including the National Comorbidity Survey and its replication, the World Mental Health Survey Initiative, and the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register. The chapter finishes by describing promising future directions for psychiatric epidemiology in the decades ahead.