Dynamic risk for first onset of depressive disorders in adolescence: does change matter?

Background: Risk factors for depressive disorders (DD) change substantially over time, but the prognostic value of these changes remains unclear. Two basic types of dynamic effects are possible. The 'Risk Escalation hypothesis' posits that worsening of risk levels predicts DD onset above average level of risk factors.

Disability mediates the impact of common conditions on perceived health.

Background: We examined the extent to which disability mediates the observed associations of common mental and physical conditions with perceived health.

Methods And Findings: WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys carried out in 22 countries worldwide (n = 51,344 respondents, 72.0% response rate).

Identifying target groups for the prevention of depression in early adolescence: the TRAILS study.

Background: Depression in adolescence is associated with long-term adverse consequences. The aim of the present study is to identify target groups at increased risk of developing depression in early adolescence, such that prevention is associated with the largest health benefit at population-level for the least effort.

Methods: The analyses were conducted on data of the first (age range 10-12) and fourth (age range 17-20) wave of a population-based cohort study (N=1538).

Social skills as precursors of cannabis use in young adolescents: a TRAILS study.

Social skills (cooperation, assertion, and self-control) were assessed by teachers for a longitudinal cohort of (pre)adolescents, with measurements at average ages 11.1 (baseline) and 16.3 years (follow-up).

Mental disorders among persons with diabetes--results from the World Mental Health Surveys.

Objective: To estimate 12-month prevalence rate of mood, anxiety, and alcohol-use disorders among community samples of diabetic persons. We assess whether associations of specific mental disorders with diabetes are consistent across diverse countries after controlling for age and gender.

Research Design And Methods: Eighteen surveys of household-residing adults were conducted in two phases across 17 countries in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific (Part 1, N=85,088).

Toward a global view of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine use: findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys.

Background: Alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use cause considerable morbidity and mortality, but good cross-national epidemiological data are limited. This paper describes such data from the first 17 countries participating in the World Health Organization's (WHO's) World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative.

Methods And Findings: Household surveys with a combined sample size of 85,052 were carried out in the Americas (Colombia, Mexico, United States), Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine), Middle East and Africa (Israel, Lebanon, Nigeria, South Africa), Asia (Japan, People's Republic of China), and Oceania (New Zealand).

Psychiatric neuroimaging: joining forces with epidemiology.

Severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and mood disorders have a major impact on public health. Disease prevalence and phenotypic expression are the products of environment and gene interactions. However, our incomplete understanding of their aetiology and pathophysiology thwarts primary prevention and early diagnosis and limits the effective application of currently available treatments as well as the development of novel therapeutic approaches.

Mental health in immigrant children in the Netherlands.

Background: Background In the past decades, the ethnic diversity of the population in the Netherlands has rapidly grown. At present, approximately 10% of all people in the Netherlands belong to immigrant families that originate from a very large variety of non-Western nations. Although it is often assumed that migration has a stress-inducing effect, leading to heightened levels of mental health problems in both immigrant children and their parents, research into this group of children is very scarce in Europe.