THE NIMH EPIDEMIOLOGIC CATCHMENT-AREA PROGRAM - BROKEN PROMISES AND DASHED HOPES

As part of a ten year retrospective on the US Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) Program, this article reviews some goals and hopes of the E CA. A subjective evaluation of progress toward those goals is provided , along with suggestions for further analyses of the existing data. Al though the ECA advanced psychiatric epidemiology in many important way s, it also produced some disappointments and tensions among psychiatri c epidemiologists that perhaps can be avoided in future large scale su rveys. We expect to continue learning from the ECA project and experie nce.