The Epidemiology of Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

Although community surveys of mental disorders have been conducted in the United States since the end of World War II,^1-3 it was not until the early 1980s that fully structured lay interviews were developed to diagnose specific mental disorders. The first such instrument was the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS),⁴ which was developed for use in the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) study⁵ to estimate the general population prevalence of mental disorders by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition (DSM-III) criteria.⁶ Major depressive disorder (MDD) prevalence estimates in the ECA sites were 3.0% to 5.9% for lifetime and 1.7% to 3.4% for 12-month.⁷