Objectives: The main aim was to calculate the prevalence of mental pathology in women between 18 and 70 in a Health District of Pamplona; second, to describe comorbidity and to analyse how mental pathology was recorded in the clinical histories.
Design: An observational crossover study with randomised selection.
Setting: A community study in the Txantrea quarter of Pamplona, covering 21,590 inhabitants, with 7605 women between 18 and 70.
Patients: Randomised sample, stratified by age, of 237 women between 18 and 70 taken from the 1991 Census.
Measurements and results: In a face-to-face interview at the Health Centre, the DIS Questionnaire, which diagnoses mental illness, was administered to all participants. A check was made to see if mental pathology was recorded in their clinical history. The prevalence of mental illnesses, mainly Phobias and Depression, in the "last year of life" was 33.3% (27.5-39.5), which fell to 24.9% (19.7-30.7) when tobacco abuse was excluded. The most common pathologies were: Depression (17.3%), Tobacco dependency (17.3%), simple Phobia (14.8%), Agoraphobia (13.5%), social Phobia (8.9%) and post-traumatic stress (8.0%).
Conclusions: Understanding the high psychological morbidity in these urban women can contribute to the development of Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Programmes and foment fuller mental health training for Primary Care professionals.