ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Suicidal ideation is believed to be part of a constellation of suicidal behaviours that culminates in suicide. There is little information on the cross-national prevalence of all suicidal ideation or of serious suicidal ideation in spite of its likely public health importance. METHODS: A two-stage screening approach of over 12,000 adults from the general population were evaluated by face to face interview to identify those meeting ICD-10 criteria for depressive disorders at eight sites in five European countries. This study is a cross-sectional analysis of item 9 (suicidal ideation) of the Beck depression inventory from the total screened sample. RESULTS: The standardised period prevalence for all suicidal ideation varied from 1.1 to 19.8% while for serious suicidal ideation there was much less variation. Examining the inter-relationships between all suicide ideation, serious suicide ideation, depressive disorders and suicide failed to support a seamless transition from suicide ideation through depression and serious ideation to suicide. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies to prevent suicide should be tailored to take account of site specific differences in its aetiology and understanding the path from suicidal ideation through depression to suicide is crucial to this.
Subject(s)
Depressive Disorder, Major/epidemiology , Global Health , Population Surveillance/methods , Suicide, Attempted/psychology , Suicide, Attempted/statistics & numerical data , Adolescent , Adult , Cross-Sectional Studies , Depressive Disorder, Major/diagnosis , Depressive Disorder, Major/psychology , Female , Humans , International Classification of Diseases , Male , Middle Aged , PrevalenceABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: No large-scale epidemiological study has included adjustment disorders (AD) for consideration yet it is considered to be a common psychiatric diagnosis. METHODS: Using a two stage screening method, those above a threshold score for possible caseness on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), were interviewed using SCAN to identify those with depressive episode and AD. Variables that might distinguish AD from depressive episode were examined. RESULTS: The prevalence of AD was extremely low with one centre having no cases. Finland, the country with the highest prevalence, only achieved a frequency of 0.8% and 1%, respectively, for urban and rural sites. Logistic regression failed to identify any variables that independently differentiated AD from depressive episode. Findings relating to severity of symptoms using BDI were robust. LIMITATIONS: The small sample size might have contributed to a failure to identify distinguishing features between AD and other disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Reasons for the failure of even robust results, such as BDI severity, to distinguish AD from depressive episode are considered of which problems in conceptualising AD are the most likely. Further studies are required.
