Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
New researchLifetime Prevalence of Mental Disorders in U.S. Adolescents: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication–Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A)
Section snippets
Sample and Procedure
The NCS-A is a nationally representative, face-to-face survey of 10,123 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years in the continental United States.17 The survey was administered by the professional interview staff of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The NCS-A was carried out in a dual-frame sample that included a household subsample and a school subsample.18, 20, 21 The overall NCS-A adolescent response rate combining the two subsamples was 82.9%. Comparisons of sample and
Lifetime Prevalence
Table 2 presents the lifetime prevalence rates of DSM-IV mental disorders by sex, age group, total DSM-IV disorders, and disorders with severe impairment. Mood disorders affected 14.3% of the total sample, corresponding to 11.7% who met criteria for MDD or dysthymia and 2.9% for BPD. Females were twice as likely as males to experience unipolar mood disorders, and somewhat more likely to experience BPD. The prevalence of all mood disorders increased uniformly with age, with a nearly twofold
Discussion
These findings provide the first lifetime prevalence data on a broad range of mental disorders in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents. The prevalence rates reported here closely approximate those of our nationally representative sample of adults using nearly identical methods, suggesting that the majority of mental disorders in adults emerge before adulthood. These rates are somewhat higher than those of prior studies, but within the range of estimates summarized in a
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The National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A) and the larger program of related NCS surveys are supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (U01-MH60220) and the National Institute of Drug Abuse (R01 DA016558) with supplemental support from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant 044708), and the John W. Alden Trust. The NCS-A was carried out in conjunction with the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative.
This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the views of any of the sponsoring organizations, agencies, or U.S. Government.
Disclosure: Drs. Merikangas, Burstein, Avenevoli, Benjet, Georgiades, and Swendsen, and Ms. He, Ms. Swanson, and Ms. Cui report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.