Social influences on risk for disorder and natural history

Measures of standard of living might be better social predictors of mental health than traditional measures of socioeconomic status. The focus on the major effects of social risk factors needs to be refined, however, to inclu de interactions with other variables at the level of the individual, as wel l as with community level measures of the wider social environment. Social factors may create persisting susceptibility to, in addition to precipitati ng onset of a psychiatric disorder. Curr Opin Psychiatry 13:209-213. (C) 20 00 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.