© 1974 Oxford University Press
research-article |
Methodological Problems in Menial Illness Epidemiology
1 Chairman, Mental Health Authority 300 Queen Street, Melbourne, C.I, Victoria, Australia
Epidemiological studies of mental illness have been based on data obtained from psychiatric facilities, cumulative case registers and community surveys. There is a need for operational definitions of psychiatric disorder to ensure adequate cross comparison of results. Two main methods of community surveys are compared: direct interviewing by psychiatrists and the administration of standardized questionnaires by lay interviewers. Through relating psychiatric morbidity to specific social factors such as social class and migration psychiatric epidemiology has become a prime tool in social psychiatry.