The results show that while psychiatric disorders are common in the Mexican population, very severe mental disorders are less common and there is extreme under-utilization of mental health services.

Neural, endocrine and immune stress mediators are hypothesized to increase risks of diverse chronic diseases, including arthritis. Retrospective data from the World Mental Health Surveys (N=18,309) were employed to assess whether adult onset of arthritis was associated with childhood adversities and early onset psychological disorder. Cox proportional hazard models assessed the association of number of childhood adversities and the presence of early onset psychological disorder with arthritis age of onset. Controlling for age, sex and early onset mental disorder, relative to persons with no childhood adversities, persons with two adversities had increased risk of adult onset arthritis (Hazard ratio=1.27, 95% CI= 1.08, 1.50), while persons with three or more adversities had higher risk (HR=1.44, CI=1.24,1.67). Early onset depressive and/or anxiety disorder was associated with increased risk of adult-onset arthritis after controlling for childhood adversities (HR=1.43, CI=1.28, 1.61). Since psychosocial stressors may be broad spectrum risk factors that increase risks of diverse chronic conditions in later life (e.g., arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, chronic pain), prospective studies of childhood psychosocial stressors may be most productive if multiple disease outcomes are assessed in the same study. Results from this study provide methodological guidance for future prospective studies of the relationship between childhood psychosocial stressors and subsequent risk of adult onset arthritis.PERSPECTIVE-Retrospective reports of early onset mood-anxiety disorder and multiple childhood adversities were independently associated with increased risk of adult onset arthritis. Carrying out prospective studies of these relationships entails significant challenges. Since childhood psychosocial stressors may be broad spectrum risk factors for diverse chronic conditions, multiple disease outcomes should be assessed in prospective studies assessing health consequences of childhood adversities. KeywordsArthritis; chronic disease; psychosocial stressors; psychological disorders; risk factors; epidemiology Osteoarthritis is a multi-factorial disease involving trauma, genetic and inflammatory factors [15]. Allostatic load is the burden placed on homeostatic systems repeatedly activated and deactivated in response to chronic stressors [18,19]. Neural, endocrine and immune stress mediators are hypothesized to increase risks of diverse chronic diseases, including arthritis [20]. Pro-inflammatory cytokines, acting as negative regulatory signals, may play a pathogenic role in diverse chronic diseases [23], with crosstalk between brain and immune system through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis involved in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis [29]. Whether childhood adversities and psychological disorders influence risks of developing musculoskeletal pain has been studied, but their association with osteoarthritis has received only limited attention. Three prospective studies have found that psychosocial difficult...

The aim of this paper is to describe drug and associated factors use among adolescents (12 to 17 years of age). Material and Methods. Data come from the recent Encuesta Nacional de Adicciones, 1998 (National Survey on Addictions) undertaken in urban areas of Mexico. A probabilistic, multi-stage, stratified cluster sampling design was used to select the study population. The sampling unit was the individual in each household. Statistical analysis consisted of the estimation of prevalences of drug use, with 95% confidence intervals. Associations were analyzed using logistic regressions models. Results. Excluding tobacco and alcohol, 3.57% of males and 0.6% of females have used one or more drugs; 2.14% and 0.45% used them in the 12 months previous to the survey, and 1.4% and 0.3% in the previous 30 days, respectively. Marihuana was the drug more often used by males (2.4%) and females (0.45%), followed by inhaled solvents (1.08% and 0.20%), and cocaine (0.99% and 0.22%), respectively. The risk of using illicit drugs was associated to being male, having dropped out from school, perceiving availability, drug use by family and friends, social tolerance among friends, and symptoms of depression. Conclusions. Adolescents between 12 to 17 years of age are exposed to increasing drug use. The rates of drug use have risen, especially in the northern region of Mexico and in the big urban areas (Tijuana, Mexico City and Guadala-Consumo de drogas entre adolescentes:

While drug use among Mexican adolescents is lower than among adolescents from other developed countries, its increasing prevalence with age and the narrowing male/female ratio calls for firm public health actions, particularly prevention strategies.

Half of mental disorders have their first onset before adulthood when the presence of a disorder may be particularly disruptive to developmental milestones. Retrospective prevalence estimates have been shown to underestimate the burden of mental illness and scarce data are available on the incidence of disorders throughout the adolescent period, especially in developing countries. Thus, the objective was to determine the incidence of mental disorders in an 8-year period from adolescence to young adulthood, onset of service use and their predictors in a Mexican cohort. 1071 respondents from a representative two-wave panel sample participated in the Mexican Adolescent Mental Health Survey in 2005 and in the follow-up survey in 2013. Disorders were evaluated with the World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview. 37.9% experienced the onset of a psychiatric disorder and 28.4% sought services for the first time. Substance use disorders had the greatest incidence, followed by mood and behavior disorders, anxiety disorders and lastly eating disorders. Sex, age, school dropout, childhood adversities and prior mental disorders predicted the onset of new disorders. Being female, having more educated parents and most classes of disorder predicted first time service use. These findings contribute to a paradigm shift in conceptions of mental disorder similar to how we think of common physical afflictions as near universal experiences across the life course, but less frequent at any given moment. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable. Therefore, public health policy should focus on early universal promotion of positive mental health and structural determinants of mental health.