WHO's work on the epidemiology of mental disorders

Abstract

The WHO programme on epidemiology of mental disorders started in the early 1960's with a series of reviews of knowledge. These were followed by activities aiming at four main goals: the standardization of psychiatric diagnosis, classification and statistics; the development of standardized internationally applicable instruments for the assessment of mental patients and of variables relevant to the assessment of mental illness; the conduct of epidemiological studies of mental disorders; and the training relevant to the above goals. The paper provides a description of the activities undertaken to achieve these goals and stresses the importance and usefulness of the collaboration of individuals, experts and institutions all over the world in this effort.

Depression and gender: An international review.

“…Symptom similarities for depression across nations also appear to be fairly reliable. Findings from current, ongoing WHO studies (Sartorius, 1993;Thornicroft & Sartorius, 1993), with many more nations participaring in these studies, will more firmly establish the findings reported here.…”

“…In addition, he reported that WHO had produced new cross-cultural instruments for assessing mental health status that were proving to be reliable and valid for cross-cultural studies. Sartorius (1993) noted that WHO's program in epidemiological psychiatry had three achievements: The first was its contribution of knowledge to the field of mental illness in different sociocultural settings; the second was its contribution to reliable and valid methods (e.g., assessment procedures), which allow for meaningful national and cross-cultural studies; and the third was the development of a network of participating individuals and centers. The WHO reports on the assessment instruments relevant for cross-cultural studies of depression, research beginning in the 1980s and continuing into the 1990s, are discussed later in this article.…”

Quality-of-life measurement in oncology.

“…Most commonly used QOL instruments were developed first only in the English language. Exceptions include the World Health Organization QOL questionnaire (WHOQOL; Sartorius, 1993;WHOQOL group, 1993WHOQOL group, , 1995, EuroQol (Brooks et al, 1991;Nord & EuroQol., 1991;EuroQol Group, 19901, and the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (de Haes, van Knippenberg, & Neijt, 1990;Watson et al, 1992).…”

Magnitude of Mental Morbidity and Its Correlates with Special Reference to Household Food Insecurity among Adult Slum Dwellers of Bankura, India: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Mental and behavioral disorders are important causes of morbidity in primary care settings and produce considerable disability. [1,2] The overall Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) burden for neuropsychiatric disorders is projected to increase to 15% by the year 2020. [3] As per the report of the National mental health survey of India 2015-16, the overall current mental morbidity was found to be 10.6%.…”