Epidemiology of Mental Disorders: The Current Agenda

A great deal is now known about the prevalence of the major types of mental disorders among different age groups in the general populations of many countries, and a considerable amount is known about their likely causes (1, 2). In both domains—the measurement of psychiatric morbidity in communities and the identification of etiologic factors—the advances achieved internationally have exposed some deeply troubling problems in methodology. These problems must now be confronted. Meanwhile, there have been some promising new developments resulting from etiologic research on mental disorders and from largescale population interventions.