Australia's mental health: an overview of the general population survey

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to estimate the 1-month and 1 -year prevalence of mental disorders in the Australian adult population; to determine the amount of disablement associated with this; and to determine the use of health and other services by persons with common mental disorde rs. Method: For the Adult Survey, a household sample of 10 600 persons aged 18 years and over were interviewed across Australia by experienced field staff of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This was 78% of the target sample. The interview consisted of the composite international diagnostic intervie w in its automated presentation (CIDI-A) and other components to determine disablement, use of services and satisfaction with services received. The d iagnostic classifications used in the analyses were both ICD-10 and DSM-IV. Only the results from ICD-10 are reported here. Results: A total of 17.7% of the sample had one or more common mental disor ders, anxiety, depression, alcohol or substance abuse and neurasthenia. Thi s morbidity was associated with considerable disablement in daily life: 3 d ays of impaired social role performance in the previous 4 weeks, compared w ith 1 day for the general population. Of all cases, 64.6% had had no contac t with health services in the previous year; 29.4% had seen GPs and 7.5% ha d seen psychiatrists. Conclusion: Australia now has its own national estimates of psychiatric mor bidity. The morbidity is associated with considerable disablement, but most of it is untreated. General practitioners encounter by far the largest pro portion of those reaching services.