DURHAM, N.C., Sep 15, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The prevalence of anxiety,
depression and substance dependency may be about twice as high as the mental
health community has thought, U.S. researchers say.
Duke University psychologists Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi and colleagues
from the United Kingdom and New Zealand used data from a long-term study of more
than 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to age 32.
The researchers say people vastly underreport the amount of mental illness
they've suffered when asked to recall their history years after the fact, but
self-reporting from memory is the basis of much of what is known about the
prevalence of anxiety, depression, alcohol dependence and marijuana dependence.
Longitudinal studies like the study in New Zealand that track people over time
are rare and expensive, Moffitt says.
"If you start with a group of children and follow them their whole lives, sooner
or later almost everybody will experience one of these disorders," Moffitt, the
Knut Schmitt-Nielsen professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke
University, said in a statement.
Moffitt and Caspi's findings from the Dunedin Study, published in the journal
Psychological Medicine, found 41 percent of those ages 18-32 had experienced
clinically significant depression and the rate of alcohol dependence for those
ages 18-32 was 32 percent.
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