OTAGO WOMENS HEALTH SURVEY 30-MONTH FOLLOW-UP .2. REMISSION PATTERNS OF NONPSYCHOTIC PSYCHIATRIC-DISORDER

The follow-up phase of a random community sample of New Zealand women contrasted the social, demographic, and clinical characteristics of th ose women whose initial psychiatric disorder had remitted with those w ho continued to describe significant psychiatric morbidity, two-and-a- half years later. Of 272 women studied at baseline and reinterviewed, 57 had originally been psychiatric cases. Twenty-five of those women ( 44%) were stilt cases at follow-up. Using figures that statistically r econstructed the original population from the stratified sample, the r emission rate in the parent population was 61% over the two-and-a-half years (an average of 24% per annum). Women less likely to experience remission of their psychiatric disorder were of mid-age (45-64 years), with poor finances and with poor social relationships at the initial assessment. Although the age finding replicates a previous report from an Epidemiological Catchment Area study, it is not clear whether it i s a universal relationship, true tar all cultures. The alterations in social roles faced by women after child-rearing is a possible explanat ion, al least for New Zealand.