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Prevalence of affective disorders in children and adolescents: findings from the Zurich Epidemiological Studies
Author(s) -
Steinhausen H.C.,
Winkler Metzke C.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0447.108.s418.5.x
Subject(s) - epidemiology , psychopathology , psychiatry , cohort , psychology , medicine , clinical psychology , cohort study , pathology
Objective: Affective disorders were studied in two epidemiological studies of children and adolescents in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Method: In the Zurich Epidemiological Study of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Study (ZESCAP) in 1994 a representative cohort of 1964 pupils aged 7–16 years was studied. The Zurich Adolescent Psychology and Psychopathology Study (ZAPPS) included 1089 adolescents aged 15–19 years who were assessed in 1997. A two‐stage approach with questionnaire screening of the entire sample in stage 1 and consecutive interviews in stage 2 was used in both studies. Diagnoses according to DSM‐III‐R were derived from structured parent interviews in the ZESCAP and from both parent and adolescent interviews in the ZAPPS. Results: The total prevalence rate for affective disorders in the ZESCAP was 0.66% (SE 0.25) whereas it was 5.1% based on adolescent interviews and 1.2% based on parent interviews in the ZAPPS. Adolescent girls have significantly higher prevalence rates for affective disorders than boys (9.4 vs. 1.1%). Conclusion: These findings are in accordance with various other international epidemiological studies on affective disorders in children and adolescents.