Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T15:56:25.165Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ESEMeD-WMH project: strenghtening epidemiological research in Europe through the study of variation in prevalence estimates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2011

Giovanni de Girolamo ,
Jordi Alonso  and
Gemma Vilagut
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD) project is the first cross-national European survey to collect data on prevalence, risk factors, health-related quality of life and use of services associated with common mental disorders. Representative samples of the non-institutionalized populations of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain were interviewed using the CIDI 3.0, totaling 21,425 adult individuals. There was important variation across countries in prevalence estimates of the disorders studied, with Belgium and France in the highest proportions and Italy and Spain the lowest. Comorbidity of mood and anxiety disorders was frequent in all countries. Use of services due to mental health is low in all European countries, but especially low in Italy. Remarkably, only about one in five participants with a mental disorder had consulted the health services in the prior year. We discuss about the possible explanations of cross-national differences in prevalence estimates of mental disorders, and some of the limitations of the data on alcohol abuse and dependence gathered in the study. We conclude that despite the advances in knowledge about determinants and treatment methods, the care of the mentally ill is rather limited in Europe.

Type
Editorials
Information
Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , September 2006 , pp. 167 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

References

REFERENCES

Alonso, J., Ferrer, M., Romera, B., Vilagut, G., Angermeyer, M., Bernert, S., Brugha, T.S., Taub, N., Mc Colgen, Z., de Girolamo, G., Polidori, G., Mazzi, F., De Graaf, R., Vollebergh, W.A., Buist-Bowman, M.A., Demyttenaere, K., Gasquet, I., Haro, J.M., Palacin, C., Autoneil, J., Katz, S.S., Kessler, R.C., Kovess, V., Lepine, J.P., Arbabzadeh-Bouchez, S., Ormel, J. & Bruffaerts, R. (2004a). Sampling and methods of the European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD) project. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Supplementum No. 420, 8–20.Google Scholar
Alonso, J., Ferrer, M., Romera, B., Vilagut, G., Angermeyer, M., Bernert, S., Brugha, T.S., Taub, N., McColgen, Z., de Girolamo, G., Polidori, G., Mazzi, F., De Graaf, R., Vollebergh, W.A., Buist-Bowman, M.A., Demyttenaere, K., Gasquet, L., Haro, J.M., Palacin, C., Autonell, J., Katz, S.J., Kessler, R.C., Kovess, V., Lepine, J.P., Arbabzadeh-Bouchez, S., Ormel, J. & Bruffaerts, R. (2004b). Prevalence of mental disorders in Europe: results from the European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD) project. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Supplementum No. 420, 21–27.Google ScholarPubMed
Alonso, J., Angermeyer, M.C., Ernert, S., Bruffaerts, R., Brugha, T.S., Bryson, H., Girolamo, G., Graaf, R.; ESEMeD/MHEDEA 2000 Investigators, European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD) Project (2004c). Disability and quality of life impact of mental disorders in Europe: results from the European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD) project. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Supplementum. 420: 38–46.Google Scholar
Alonso, J., Ferrer, M., Romera, B., Vilagut, G., Angermeyer, M., Bemert, S., Brugha, T.S., Taub, N., McColgen, Z., de Girolamo, G., Polidori, G., Mazzi, F., De Graaf, R., Vollebergh, W.A., Buist-Bowman, M.A., Demyttenaere, K., Gasquet, I., Haro, J.M., Palacin, C., Autonell, J., Katz, S.J., Kessler, R.C., Kovess, V., Lepine, J.P., Arbabzadeh-Bouchez, S., Ormel, J. & Bruffaerts, R. (2004d). Use of mental health services in Europe: results from the European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD) project. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Supplementum No. 420, 47–54.Google ScholarPubMed
Beekman, A.T., Deeg, D.J., Braam, A.W., Smit, J.H. & van Tilburg, W. (1997). Consequences of major and minor depression in later life: a study of disability, well-being and service utilization. Psychological Medicinen. 1397–1409.Google Scholar
Buist-Bouwman, M.A., De Graaf, R., Vollebergh, W.A., Alonso, J., Bruffaerts, R., Ormel, J. & ESEMeD/MHEDEA 2000 Investigators (2006). Functional disability of mental disorders and comparison with physical disorders: a study among the general population of six European countries. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 113, 492–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corrada, M., Brookmeyer, R. & Kawas, C. (1995). Sources of variability in prevalence estimates of Alzheimer's disease. International Journal of Epidemiology 24, 1000–1005.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalstra, J.A., Kunst, A.E., Borrell, C., Breeze, E., Cambois, E., Costa, G., Geurts, J.J., Lahelma, E., Van Oyen, H., Rasmussen, N.K., Regidor, E., Spadea, T. & Mackenbach, J.P. (2005). Socioeconomic differences in the prevalence of common chronic diseases: an overview of eight European countries. International Journal of Epidemiology 28, 316–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Girolamo, G. & Bassi, M. (2003). Community surveys of mental disorders: recent achievements and works in progress. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 16, 403–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Girolamo, G., Polidori, G., Morosini, G., Scarpino, V., Reda, V., Serra, G., Mazzi, F., Visonà, G., Falsirollo, F. & Rossi, A. (2005). Prevalenza dei disturbi mentali in Italia, fattori di rischio, stato di salute ed uso dei servizi sanitari: il progetto ESEMeD-WMH. Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale, Suppl. No. 8.Google Scholar
de Girolamo, G., Polidori, G., Morosini, G., Scarpino, V., Reda, V., Serra, G., Mazzi, F., Alonso, J., Villagut, G., Visonà, G., Falsirollo, F., Rossi, A. & Warner, R. (in press). Prevalence of common mental disorders in Italy: results from the European Study of Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD). Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.Google Scholar
De Graaf, R., Bijl, R.V., Smit, F., Ravelli, A. & Vollebergh, W.A. (2000). Psychiatrie and sociodemographic predictors of attrition in a longitudinal study. The Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS). American Journal of Epidemiology 152, 1039–1047.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demyttenaere, K., Bruffaerts, R., Posada-Villa, J., Gasquet, I., Kovess, V., Lepine, J.P., Angermeyer, M.C., Bernert, S., de Girolamo, G., Morosini, P., Polidori, G., Kikkawa, T., Kawakami, N., Ono, Y., Takeshima, T., Uda, H., Karam, E.G., Fayyad, J.A., Karam, A.N., Mneimneh, Z.N., Medina-Mora, M.E., Borges, G., Lara, C., de Graaf, R., Ormel, J., Gureje, O., Shen, Y., Huang, Y., Zhang, M., Alonso, J., Haro, J.M., Vilagut, G., Bromet, E.J., Gluzman, S., Webb, C., Kessler, R.C., Merikangas, K.R., Anthony, J.C., Von Korff, M.R., Wang, P.S., Brugha, T.S., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Lee, S., Heeringa, S., Pennell, B.E., Zaslavsky, A.M., Üstün, T.B., Chatterji, S. & WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium. (2004). Prevalence, severity, and unmet need for treatment of mental disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Journal of the American Medical Association 291, 2581–2590.Google Scholar
D'Souza, W.J., Ellwood, P., Ford, R.P., Mackay, R.J., Mitchell, E.A., Moyes, C., Pearce, N., Stewart, A.W. & ISAAC Study (2004). Asthma prevalence in European, Maori, and Pacific children in New Zealand: ISAAC study. Pediatrics Pulmonolology 37, 433–442.Google Scholar
Faravelli, C., Abrardi, L., Bartolozzi, D., Cecchi, C., Cosci, F., D'Adamo, D., Lo Iacono, B., Ravaldi, C., Scarpato, M.A., Truglia, E., Rossi Prodi, P.M. & Rosi, S. (2004). The Sesto Fiorentino study: point and one-year prevalences of psychiatric disorders in an italian community sample using clinical interviewers. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic 73, 226–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gigantesco, A., Palumbo, G., Mirabella, F., Pettinelli, M. & Morosini, P. (2006). Prevalence of psychiatric disorders on an Italian town: low prevalence confirmed with two different interviews. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 75, 170–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halbert, R.J., Isonaka, S., George, D. & Iqbal, A. (2003). Interpreting COPD prevalence rates: what is the true burden of disease? Chest 123, 1684–1692.Google Scholar
Haro, J.M.A., Vilagut, G.S. & Kessler, R.C. (submitted for publication). Clinical Calibration of DSM-IV Diagnoses in the World Mental Health (WMH) Version of the World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WHM-CIDI).Google Scholar
Kessler, R.C. & Üstün, T.B. (2004). The World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative Version of the World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research 13, 93–121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohn, R., Dohrenwend, B.P. & Mirotznik, J. (1998). Epidemiological findings on selected psychiatric disorders in the general population. In Adversity, Stress and Psychopathology (ed. Dohrenwend, B.P.), pp. 235–284. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kovess-Masfety, V., Alonso, J., Brugha, T.S., Angermeyer, M.C., Haro, J.M., Sevilla-Dedieu, C. & the ESEMED/MHEDEA 2000 Investigators (in press). Differences in the Lifetime Use of Services for Mental Health Problems in Six European Countries: Results of the ESEMeD Project. Psychiatric Services.Google Scholar
Kuulasmaa, K., Tunstall-Pedoe, H., Dobson, A., Fortmann, S., Sans, S., Tolonen, H., Evans, A., Ferrario, M. & Tuomilehto, J. (2000). Estimation of contribution of changes in classic risk factors to trends in coronary-event estimates across the WHO MONICA Project populations. Lancet 355, 675–687.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawes, C.M., Vander Hoorn, S., Law, M.R., Elliott, P., MacMahon, S. & Rodgers, A. (2006). Blood pressure and the global burden of disease 2000. Part 1: rates of blood pressure levels. Journal of Hypertension 24, 413–422.Google Scholar
Leon, D. A. & McCambridge, J. (2006). Liver cirrhosis mortality rates from Britain 1950 to 2002: an analysis of routine data. Lancet 367, 52–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Narrow, W.E., Rae, D.S., Robins, L.N. & Regier, D.A. (2002). Revised prevalence estimates of mental disorders in the United States: using a clinical significance criterion to reconcile 2 surveys' estimates. Archives of General Psychiatry 59, 115–123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parkin, D.M. (2001). Global cancer statistics in the year 2000. Lancet Oncology 2, 533–543.Google Scholar
Pattemore, P.K., Ellison-Loschmann, L., Asher, M.I., Barry, D.M., Clayton, T.O., Crane, J., Raspe, H., Matthis, C., Croft, P., O'Neill, T. & European Vertebral Osteoporosis Study Group (2004). Variation in back pain between countries: the example of Britain and Germany. Spine 29, 1017–1021.Google Scholar
Patten, S.B. (2003). International differences in major depression prevalence: what do they mean? Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 56, 711–716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rehm, J., Room, R., van den Brink, W. & Jacobi, F. (2005). Alcohol use disorders in EU countries and Norway: an overview of the epidemiology. European Neuropsychopharmacology 15, 377–388.Google Scholar
Sartorius, N., Üstün, T.B., Costa e Silva, J.A., Goldberg, D., Lecrubier, Y., Ormel, J., Von Korff, M. & Wittchen, H.-U. (1993). An international study of psychological problems in primary care. Preliminary report from the World Health Organization Collaborative Project on ‘Psychological Problems in General Health Care’. Archives of General Psychiatry 50, 819–824.Google Scholar
Tolonen, H., Mahonen, M., Asplund, K., Rastenyte, D., Kuulasmaa, K., Vanuzzo, D. & Tuomilehto, J. (2002). Do trends in population levels of blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors explain trends in stroke event estimates? Comparisons of 15 populations in 9 countries within the WHO MONICA Stroke Project. World Health Organization Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease. Stroke 33, 2367–2375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolonen, H., Keil, U., Ferrano, M., Evans, A. & WHO MONICA Project (2005). Prevalence, awareness and treatment of hypercholesterolaemia in 32 populations. results from the WHO MONICA Project. International Journal of Epidemiology 34, 181–192.Google Scholar
Ware, J.E. Jr, Kosinski, M. & Keller, S.D. (1995). SF-12. How to Score the SF-12 Physical and Mental Health Summary Scales. New England Medical Centre: Boston, MA.Google Scholar
Ware, J. Jr, Kosinski, M. & Keller, S.D. (1996). A 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey: construction of scales and preliminary tests of reliability and validity. Medical Care 34, 220–233.Google Scholar
Warner, R. & de Girolamo, G. (1995). Schizophrenia. Epidemiology of Mental Disorders and Psychosocial Problems. Vol III. World Health Organization: Geneva.Google Scholar
WHO International Consortium in Psychiatric Epidemiology (2000). Cross-national comparisons of the prevalences and correlates of mental disorders. Bulletin of World Health Organization 78, 413–426.Google Scholar
WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium (submitted for publication). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of mental disorders in the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys.Google Scholar
Wittchen, U. & Jacobi, (2005). Size and burden of mental disorders in Europe: a critical review and appraisal of 27 studies. European Neuropsychopharmacology 15, 357–376.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed