The conclusion belongs to a new scientific investigation

Jan 9, 2014 23:01 GMT  ·  By
The incidence of mental disorders in middle life is heavily under-reported, a new study shows
   The incidence of mental disorders in middle life is heavily under-reported, a new study shows

Scientists with the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Bloomberg School of Public Health determined in a new study that the incidence of mental illnesses at middle age is much larger in the general populations than previous statistical studies reported. 

This incongruence was apparently caused by a methodological flaw in the way other studies used to track the progression of mental health disorders through the general population over the years. The groups affected by this statistical oversight include middle-aged adults and seniors.

The new investigation was led by JHU expert Yoichiro Takayanagi, MD, PhD. Details of the work were published in the latest online issue of the esteemed scientific journal JAMA Psychiatry.

“The takeaway is that lifetime estimates based on [participant] recall in cross-sectional surveys underestimate the occurrences of mental disorders over the lifetime,” explains the senior author of the paper, JHU associate professor Ramin Mojtabai, MD, PhD, MPH, MA.

The highest increases – after reanalyzing the data – were noticed in major depressive disorders, which affect 13.1 percent of the population instead of 4.5 percent, as previously stated. The incidence of obsessive-compulsive disorders was found to be nearly 12 times higher than previously predicted.

Other conditions whose presence appears to have been understated include panic disorder (6.7 percent), social phobia (25.3 percent), alcohol use or dependence (25.9 percent) and drug abuse (17.6 percent).

“Stigma associated with mental disorders, as well as the fluctuating course of mental illnesses, might partly explain the discrepancies, as well as differences in ages of onset of mental and physical disorders,” Mojtabai explains, quoted by PsychCentral.

“Mental disorders start earlier and have a higher prevalence in early to mid-life, whereas physical disorders are typically illnesses of middle and older age and tend to be chronic,” the expert adds.

The research was conducted on data collected from interviews held in 2004 and 2005, on a number of 1,071 adults. All test participants were members of the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area Survey, which went back an additional quarter century.