PREVALENCE OF PSYCHIATRIC DYSFUNCTIONS IN THE MEXICAN POPULATION - PRESENT STATE AND PERSPECTIVES

The present paper presents an overview of different epidemiological re search projects carried out by personnel of the Mexican Institute of P sychiatry in the last 15 years. Studies on general practice have shown prevalence ranging from 29 to 51 % in the adult population attended a t the different services. Depressive and anxiety disorders were elicit ed as the most common, and in their severe forms both males and female s were affected equally. Comparatively, subjects aged 65 years and old er showed higher prevalence on mental disorders. Studies on adult gene ral population throughout the country showed an estimated prevalence o f mental disorders between 15 and 18 %. The most severe forms of psych opathology were equally reported for both males and females; minor dep ressive disorders were more common among females. Results obtained in this research are quite comparable to those reported recently in other countries. The estimated prevalence of psychiatric disorders in child ren aged 3 to 12 years old ranged from 15 to 20 %, showing an associat ion with the presence of depressive disorders in the adult as well as with higher consumption of alcohol. Finally, a national survey on psyc hiatric inpatients throughout the country showed that the most frequen t attended diagnostic conditions are schizophrenia, mental retardation and other chronic organic psychosis. A considerable proportion of chr onic patients have been abandoned by their relatives, causing the inst itutionalization of these patients associated with other variables suc h as the type and severity of the disorder. Based on these results, fu ture lines of research and action are proposed.