D R Offord1. 1. Centre for Studies of Children at Risk, Chedoke-McMaster Hospitals and Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to present selected findings from child psychiatric epidemiology in areas of prevalence and correlates, and discuss issues in interpreting these data and their relevance. METHOD: Selected references were used. RESULTS: Prevalence rates of 1 or more child psychiatric disorders in nonclinical community samples of children and adolescents vary between 17.6% and 22%. Issues in interpreting these data include: the boundary between normal and abnormal, boundary between disorders, disagreement among informants, and problems with instrumentation. Knowledge about the correlates of child psychiatric disorders is quite extensive, but information on causal factors is relatively sparse. CONCLUSIONS: Findings in child psychiatric epidemiology are relevant to clinicians, and future emphasis in the field will be on prospective studies with multiple waves of data from different domains including the child, the family, the school, and the wider community.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to present selected findings from childpsychiatric epidemiology in areas of prevalence and correlates, and discuss issues in interpreting these data and their relevance. METHOD: Selected references were used. RESULTS: Prevalence rates of 1 or more childpsychiatric disorders in nonclinical community samples of children and adolescents vary between 17.6% and 22%. Issues in interpreting these data include: the boundary between normal and abnormal, boundary between disorders, disagreement among informants, and problems with instrumentation. Knowledge about the correlates of childpsychiatric disorders is quite extensive, but information on causal factors is relatively sparse. CONCLUSIONS: Findings in childpsychiatric epidemiology are relevant to clinicians, and future emphasis in the field will be on prospective studies with multiple waves of data from different domains including the child, the family, the school, and the wider community.