D e s c r i p t i o n o f t e s t s a n d d i a g n o s t i c s t a n d a r d Before being seen by a physician, patients completed 3 screening questionnaires: the depression module of the Brief Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the General Health Questionnaire, and the World Health Organization (WHO) Wellbeing Index (WHO-5). Physicians treating the patients completed an encounter form to re...

OBJECTIVE There is limited information available about the mental health of female sex workers. Therefore, we aimed to make a comprehensive assessment of the mental status of female sex workers over different outdoors and indoors work settings and nationalities. METHOD As the prerequisites of a probability sampling were not given, a quota-sampling strategy was the best possible alternative. S...

BACKGROUND Mental disorders are a major contributor to the burden of disease in all regions of the world. There are limited data on the epidemiology of major depressive disorder in South Africa. METHODS A nationally representative household survey was conducted between 2002 and 2004 using the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) to establish a diagnosi...

BACKGROUND There are limited data on substance use in South Africa. We describe patterns of substance use based on recent, nationally representative data. METHODS Data were derived from the 2002-2004 South African Stress and Health (SASH) study. A nationally representative household probability sample of 4351 adults was interviewed using the paper and pencil version of the World Health Organi...

BACKGROUND Recent studies support a distinction between acute and chronic forms of depression, which contrasts the single-disease hypothesis for depressive disorders. Insight into the (determinants of) the 3-year naturalistic course of major depressive disorder (MDD), dysthymic disorder (Dysth) and double depression (DD) may contribute to this debate. METHODS Data were derived from NEMESIS, a...

BACKGROUND The degree by which depressive symptoms and clinical depression reflect each other may vary across populations. The present study compared Blacks and Whites for the magnitude of the cross-sectional associations between various domains of depressive symptoms and endorsement of clinical disorders of depression. METHODS Data came from the National Survey of American Life, 2001-2003. W...

INTRODUCTION Patients with unrecognized psychiatric disorders in general hospitals, suffer economic and psycho-social difficulties. This study aimed to determine (i) prevalence and pattern of psychiatric disorders, and (ii) prevalence of unrecognized psychiatric disorders among adult in-patients of a general hospital. METHODS In this two-stage, cross-sectional study, we used (i) General Healt...

OBJECTIVE To replicate previously reported associations between major depressive episodes (MDEs) and long-term medical conditions in a Canadian community sample. METHODS A sample of 2542 household residents was selected using random digit dialing (RDD). Data were collected by telephone interview. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI)-Short Form for major depression (CIDI-SFM...