The Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being - Common psychological symptoms and disablement

Background The mental health of populations can be represented by case prev alence rates and by symptom scales. Scales have the advantage of identifyin g sub-syndromal levels of distress, which may be common and associated with considerable disability. Aims To examine the distribution of common psychological symptoms and assoc iated disablement in the Australian population. Method A household sample of 10 641 individuals representative of the adult population of Australia was interviewed using the Composite international Diagnostic Interview and completed scales measuring recent symptoms and dis ablement. Results Symptom scales showed similar associations with socio-economic vari ables as did diagnoses, although only a small amount of variance in symptom levels was explained by these variables. Considerable disablement was asso ciated with symptom levels indicating distress but not reaching levels for formal diagnoses of anxiety or depression. Conclusions Symptom scales provide parsimonious measures of psychological d istress and are appropriate for use in large-scale surveys of mental health and disablement.