Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:18:15.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A community mental health survey in Cantabria: a general description of morbidity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

J. L. Vázquez-Barquero ,
J. F. Díez-Manrique ,
C. Peña ,
J. Aldama ,
C. Samaniego Rodríguez ,
J. Menéndez Arango  and
C. Mirapeix
J. L. Vázquez-Barquero*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, National Hospital ‘Valdecilla’, Santander Medical School, Santander (Spain)
J. F. Díez-Manrique
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, National Hospital ‘Valdecilla’, Santander Medical School, Santander (Spain)
C. Peña
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, National Hospital ‘Valdecilla’, Santander Medical School, Santander (Spain)
J. Aldama
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, National Hospital ‘Valdecilla’, Santander Medical School, Santander (Spain)
C. Samaniego Rodríguez
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, National Hospital ‘Valdecilla’, Santander Medical School, Santander (Spain)
J. Menéndez Arango
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, National Hospital ‘Valdecilla’, Santander Medical School, Santander (Spain)
C. Mirapeix
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, National Hospital ‘Valdecilla’, Santander Medical School, Santander (Spain)
*
1Address for correspondence: Prof. J. L. V´zquez-Barquero, Servicio de Psiquiatría, Hospital Nacional Valdecilla, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Santander, Santander, 39008, (Spain).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

A two-stage mental illness survey of a random sample of persons aged 17 years and over from a rural community in Cantabria, Spain, is described. In the first stage newly qualified doctors and final year medical students interviewed 1223 respondents (583 males and 640 females) at their homes, using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-60) and other psychopathological and social questionnaires. In the second stage senior psychiatrists carried out an at-home interview on a sample composed of all those who in the first stage scored above the cut-off point on the GHQ, and of a similar number of persons selected at random from two independent batches of below-threshold scorers on the GHQ. Because of this design the prevalence figures have to be weighted in order to represent the whole first stage sample.

Of the total population, 14·7% (8·1% of the men and 20·6% of the women) had psychiatric disorders as defined by the PSE-ID system. In males depression accounted for about twice as many cases as anxiety states, but in females there was a predominance of a combination of anxiety, phobic and obsessive conditions. Men presented a higher prevalence of disorders over the age of 35, with a peak around the age of forty, while in women the rise of prevalence was over the age of 45. There was, however, no significant association with marital status.

Unemployment was related to mental illness in males but not in females, while the reverse was true of the type of work. In both sexes the presence of children under fourteen in the household was not related to a rise in prevalence. Women exhibited a high rate of mental illness in the low educational level and in the low social and religious integration groups, but in men a rise in prevalence was found in the low social status, low educational level and low social integration groups. Lastly, in both sexes the presence of physical illness was related to mental disorders.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , February 1987 , pp. 227 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bebbington, P., Huray, J., Tennant, C., Sturt, E. & Wing, J. K. (1981). Epidemiology of mental disorders in Camberwell. Psychological Medicine 11, 561–579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bremer, J. (1950). A social psychiatric investigation of a small community in Northern Norway. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica (Suppl. 62).Google ScholarPubMed
Brodman, K., Erdmann, A. J. & Wolff, H. G. (1956). Cornell Medical Index Health Questionnaire Manual. Cornell University Medical College: New York.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978). Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. Tavistock: London.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Prudo, R. (1981). Psychiatric disorder in a rural and an urban population: 1. Aetiology and depression. Psychological Medicine 11, 581–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochrane, R. & Stopes-Roe, M. (1980). Factors affecting the distribution of psychological symptoms in urban areas of England. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 61, 445–460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Comstock, G. W. & Helsing, K. J. (1976). Symptoms of depression in two communities. Psychological Medicine 6, 551–563.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooper, B. & Morgan, H. G. (1973). Epidemiological Psychiatry. Charles C. Thomas Publishers: Springfield, Illinois.Google ScholarPubMed
Deming, W. E. (1977). An essay on screening, or on two-phase sampling, applied to surveys of a community. International Statistical Review 45, 29–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Díez-Manrique, J. F., Vázquez-Barquero, J. L., Peña Martín, C., & Samaniego, C. (1984). Metodología de la investigación epidemiológica comunitaria: a propósito del Estudio de Salud Mental de Cantabria. In Epidemiología Psiquiátrica, tomo 1, (ed. Díaz, A. Seva), pp. 53–74. Publicaciones universidad de Zaragoza: Zaragoza (Spain).Google Scholar
Díez-Manrique, J. F., Vázquez-Barquero, J. L., Peña, C., Liaño, R. A. & Manrique, S. J. (1986 a). La salud mental de los varones en un área rural de Cantabria. (In preparation.)Google Scholar
Díez-Manrique, J. F., Vázquez-Barquero, J. L., Peña, C., Quintanal, R. G., Díez Aja, A. & Guillen, A. J. F. (1986 b). Patterns of illness behaviour and psychiatric disturbances in a rural community. (In preparation.)Google Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. P. & Dohrenwend, B. S. (1969). Social Status and Psychological Disorders: A Causal Inquiry. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. P. & Dohrenwend, B. S. (1974). Social and cultural influences on psychopathology. Annual Review of Psychology 25, 417–452.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dohrenwend, B. P. & Dohrenwend, B. S. (1976). Sex differences and psychiatric disorders. American Journal of Sociology 81, 1147–1454.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duncan-Jones, P. & Henderson, S. (1978). The use of a two-phase design in population survey. Social Psychiatry 13, 231–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eastwood, M. R. (1971). Screening for psychiatric disorder. Psychological Medicine 1, 197–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Essen-Möller, E. (1956). Individual traits and morbidity in a Swedish rural population. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica (Suppl. 100).Google Scholar
Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E. & McHugh, P. R. (1975). Mini-Mental State: a practical method for grading the cognitive State of patients for clinicians. Journal of Psychiatric Research 12, 189–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillis, L. S., Lewis, J. B. & Slabbert, M. (1968). Psychiatric disorder amongst the coloured people of the Cape Peninsula: An epidemiological study. British Journal of Psychiatry 114, 1575–1587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, D. P., Cooper, B., Eastwood, M. R., Kedward, H. B. & Shepherd, M. (1970). A standardized psychiatric interview suitable for use in community surveys. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine 24, 18–23.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1972). The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. Maudsley Monograph No. 21. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Gove, W. R. (1972). The relationship between sex roles, marital roles and mental illness. Social Forces 51, 34–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gove, W. R. & Tudor, J. F. (1973). Adult sex roles and mental illness. American Journal of Sociology 7, 812–835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallström, T. (1970). Depressions among women in Gothenburg: An epidemiological study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (Suppl. 217), 25–26.Google Scholar
Henderson, A. S., Duncan-Jones, P., Byrne, D. G., Scott, R. & Adcock, S. (1979). Psychiatric disorder in Canberra. A standardised study of prevalence. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 60, 355–374.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henderson, A. S., Byrne, D. G. & Duncan-Jones, P. (1981). Neurosis and the social environment. Academic Press: London.Google Scholar
Lin, T. Y. & Standley, C. C. (1962). The Scope of Epidemiology in Psychiatry. World Health Organization. Public Health Papers No 16.Google ScholarPubMed
Lobo, A., Ezquerra, J., Escolar, V., Sala, J. & Seva, A. (1979). El Mini-Examen cognoscitivo: un test sencillo y práctico para detectar alteraciones intelectuales en pacientes médicos. Actas Luso-Españolas de Neurología y Psiquiatría VII, 198–202.Google Scholar
Muñoz, P. E., Vázquez-Barquero, J. L., Pastrana, E., Rodríguez Insausti, F. & Oneca, C. (1978). Study of the validity of Goldberg's 60–Items GHQ in its Spanish version. Social Psychiatry 13, 99–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orley, J. & Wing, J. K. (1979). Psychiatric disorders in two African villages. Archives of General Psychiatry 36, 513–520.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Plunkett, R. J. & Gordon, J. E. (1960). Epidemiology and Mental Illness. Basic Books: New York.Google Scholar
Prudo, R., Brown, G. W., Harris, T. & Dowland, S. (1981). Psychiatric disorder in a rural and an urban population. 2. Sensitivity to loss. Psychological Medicine 11, 601–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prudo, R., Harris, T. & Brown, G. W. (1984). Psychiatric disorder in a rural and an urban population. 3. Social integration and the morphology of affective disorder. Psychological Medicine 14, 327–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radoff, L. (1975). Sex differences in depression: the effects of occupation and marital status. Sex Roles 1, 249–265.Google Scholar
Schwab, J. J. & Schwab, M. E. (1978). Sociocultural Roots of Mental Illness, an Epidemiological Survey. Plenum Medical Books: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Surtees, P. G., Dean, C., Ingham, J. G., Kreitman, N. B., Miller, P. McC. & Sashidharan, S. P. (1983). Psychiatric disorder in women from an Edinburgh community: Associations with demographic factors. Britsh Journal of Psychiatry 142, 238–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uhlenhuth, E. H., Lipman, R. S., Balter, M. B. & Stern, M. (1974). Symptom intensity and life stress in the city. Archives of General Psychiatry 31, 759–764.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vázquez-Barquero, J. L. (1979). Influencia de los factores socioculturales sobre la prevalencia neurótica: Un estudio de epidemiología comunitaria en el valle del Baztan. Tesis Doctoral, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.Google Scholar
Vázquez-Barquero, J. L. (1980). Metodología de la investigación epidemiológica psiquiátrica: los estudios transversales en dos fases de la comunidad. Revista de Psiquiatría y Psicología Médica 14, 153–162.Google Scholar
Vázquez-Barquero, J. L. (1981). Sociología de las Neurosis. Psiquis 126, 126–135.Google Scholar
Vázquez-Barquero, J. L., Muñoz, P. E. & Madoz Jauregui, V. (1981). The interaction between physical illness and neurotic morbidity in the community. British Journal of Psychiatry 139, 328–335.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vázquez-Barquero, J. L., Muñoz, P. E. & Madoz Jauregui, V. (1982). The influence of the process of urbanization on the prevalence of neurosis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 65, 161–170.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vázquez-Barquero, J. L., Díez-Manrique, J. F., Aldama, J. M., Díez Aja, S., Samaniego, C. & Liaño, A. (1984). El Cornell Medical Index como instrumento de detección de patología en estudios communitarios. In Epidemiología Psiquiátrica, Tomo 2 (ed. Díaz, A. Seva), pp. 155–167. Publicaciones Universidad de Zaragoza: Zaragoza (Spain).Google Scholar
Vázquez-Barquero, J. L., Díez-Manrique, J. F., Peña, C., Quintanal, R. G. & Labrador López, M. (1986 a). Two stage design in a community survey. British Journal of Psychiatry 149, 88–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vázquez-Barquero, J. L., Díez-Manrique, J. F., Peña, C., Aldama, J. M., Samaniego, C. & Quintanal, R. G. (1986 b). The influence of sociocultural factors on the interaction between physical and mental disturbances in a rural community. (In preparation.)Google Scholar
V´zquez-Barquero, J. L., Díez-Manrique, J. F., Peña, C., Lequerica, P. J., Artal, S. J. A. & Liaño Rincon, A. (1986 c). Depresion y ansiedad: perfiles sociodemograficos diferenciales en la poblacion general. Actas Luso Españolas de Neurologia y Psiquiatria (In the press).Google Scholar
Warheit, G. J., Holzer, C. E. & Schwab, J. J. (1973). An analysis of social class and racial differences in depressive symptomatology: a community study. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour 14, 291–295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, M. M. & Klerman, G. L. (1977). Sex differences and the epidemiology of depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 34, 98–112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974). Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. & Sturt, E. (1978). The PSE–ID–CATEGO System: A Supplementary Manual. Institute of Psychiatry: London (mimeo).Google Scholar