Background: The effectiveness of different assessment procedures for determining prevalence rates of psychiatric disorder in young adults was investigated.
Method: In a two-stage multi-method procedure, the Young Adult Self-Report, the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN), the Structured Interview for Personality Disorders (Revised), and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale were used to assess prevalence rates in 706 19-24-year-olds from the general population. Furthermore, individuals' subjective perception of distress and referral to mental health services were assessed.
Results: The prevalence of any SCAN/DSM-III-R disorder was 19.3% (95% confidence interval: 11.2-27.4%). Most subjects who received a SCAN/DSM-III-R diagnosis were only mildly impaired. The highest prevalence rates of dysfunctioning (GAF score below 61) without referral to mental health services were for dissociative disorder (2.3%), sleep disorder (2.1%), alcohol dependence (1.3%) and affective disorder (1.8%).
Conclusion: Instruments that assess functional impairment in addition to DSM-III-R diagnoses are indispensable in prevalence studies.