Prevalence of Mental Illness in the general population

Hey Jake,

Those stats you have quoted are from the an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report. You can get a summary from the ABS website I have linked that to the press release, but on the left hand side you can find the full report.

I'm always cautious about quoting stats, because they get thrown around so much, and sometimes the context is missed or left out. Your question is such a good one! The different between a "lifetime" and a "year" is huge!

I hope you find the link useful - it seems to support your view.

Nik

Hi Jake, both my psych and the mental health doctors at the public hospital use exactly those figures.

kenny

Hi Kenny,

Thanks, I thought those figures were accurate, my GP thought those figures were wrong. I'd actually like to know if it is possible to obtain the level of undiagnosed mental illness in the general population?

I know quite a few people that have what would be described as dysfunctional behaviours, but they would never present for clinical analysis, so never get a 'label'.

Can anyone please confirm if those ABS figures are 'across' the general population?

Thanks

Regards, Jake

Hi Jake

I belonged to an American Schizophrenic support group which talked a lot about those figures, diagnosed, undiagnosed etc etc etc. which talked a lot about incidence in the general population, which should be the same as in Australia. Unfortunately I lost contact with it whern I became hospitalised for so long and got the whole damaged cognitive memory thing post episode. Anyway I will go through my old computer to see if I can pick up the name. I googled Shizophrenia groups in the US but I didnt recognise any of them. Hopefully its still in existance. As for the ABS figures, if it was me, I would ring one of the policy officers at the ABS to see if one of them can explain the methodology and outcomes to you. Worth a shot. Good luck.

Kenny

Hi Jake,

I'm not sure about undiagnosed numbers unfortunately.

In terms of the 1 in 5 - the way they come to that conclusion is based on the 2007 ABS survey. The survey collected information from approximately 8,800 Australians aged 16-85 years.

It's interesting stuff how they collect the data and come up with these stats.

Nik

Hi Nik,

Found this interesting article, which seems to confirm my viewpoint, it's a bit of an eye opener though:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/04/diagnostic_and_statistical_manual_fifth_edition_why_will_half_the_u_s_population.single.html

Regards, Jake

Heya Jake,

Just letting you know that Nik's not on tonight, which is why she has not yet responded, but she will when she's on next on Tuesday.

CB

Hi CB,

No worries, thanks for letting me know.

Regards, Jake

p.s. our friendly Spell Check has no sense of humour - it has 25 alternatives for Heya & (Lol!)