Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders among homeless people in a southeast city in Brazil

Several studies have shown a high prevalence of mental disorders among home less people. Data from developing countries, like Brazil, are conspicuously lacking, making it difficult to plan interventions targeted to this group' s mental health. The sample was selected from street dwellers in Juiz de Fo ra, a city with 424479 inhabitants in the Southeast of Brazil. People of 18 years of age or more who had been living outdoors for at least 12 months w ere eligible for the study. The psychophathology was assessed by using SCAN (Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry). After 3 months, it was possible to assess 83 persons. All but one had at least one psychiatric diagnosis according to ICD-IO. The most frequent diagnoses were alcohol ab use/dependence (82%), mood disorders (32.5%), drug abuse/dependence (31.3%) , and schizophreniform psychosis (9.6%), with a high rate of comorbidity (7 8.3%). The occurrence of mental disorders was present in almost the entire sample. The authors link this to sampling framing and weakness of the homel ess care network system, due to economic constrain and social inequality wi thin the country.