Prevalence study of mental disorders in an Italian region. Preliminary report

6Citations
Citations of this article
31Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Background: Mental disorders are a major public health problem. However, over the last few years, there have been few studies aimed at evaluating their diffusion. Therefore, this study aimed at evaluating: the prevalence of the most frequent psychiatric disorders in the general population residing in Tuscany using a clinical scale administered by trainee in psychiatry. Methods: The study was carried out on a representative sample of the general population aged > 18 years, randomly extracted from the register of patients in the Tuscany region, adopting a proportional sampling method stratified by gender, age group and Local Health Units (LHU). Each person was contacted by letter followed by a phone call from an operator who makes an appointment with the trainee in psychiatry. The diagnostic interview conducted was the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Point and lifetime prevalence by gender and age group were calculated. Differences and associations were considered statistically significant if their p-values were less than 0.05. Results: Of the 408 people involved, 390 people were enrolled (of which 52.6% female). The 28.5% of the sample had been affected by a psychiatric disorder during their lifetime. In their lifetime, the most represented psychiatric disorders were major depressive episode (20.4%), major depressive disorder (17.0%) and panic disorder (10.3%), more frequent in the female than the male group. Current conditions were predominantly major depressive episode (3.1%) and agoraphobia (2.8%). A 5.9% rate of current suicidal ideation was also found. Conclusions: In the general population, 28.5% of people reported a psychiatric disorder during their lifetime. This prevalence is considerably higher than that reported in a previous study carried out in central Italy.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Silvestri, C., Carpita, B., Cassioli, E., Lazzeretti, M., Rossi, E., Messina, V., … Falato, R. (2023). Prevalence study of mental disorders in an Italian region. Preliminary report. BMC Psychiatry, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04401-4

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free