science

Psychiatric epidemiology

Psychiatric epidemiology is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Psychiatric epidemiology rather than just read about it. In short: Psychiatric epidemiology is a field which studies the causes (etiology) of mental disorders in society, as well as conceptualization and prevalence of mental illness. It is a subfield of the more general epidemiology.

Key takeaways

Psychiatric epidemiology belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Psychiatric epidemiology to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Psychiatric epidemiology from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Psychiatric epidemiology is a field which studies the causes (etiology) of mental disorders in society, as well as conceptualization and prevalence of mental illness. It is a subfield of the more general epidemiology. It has roots in sociological studies of the early 20th century. However, while sociological exposures are still widely studied in psychiatric epidemiology, the field has since expanded to the study of a wide area of environmental risk factors, such as major life events, as well as genetic exposures. Increasingly neuroscientific techniques like MRI are used to explore the mechanisms behind how exposures to risk factors may impact psychological problems and explore the neuroanatomical substrate underlying psychiatric disorders. Reviews on psychiatric epidemiology as a main subject were published by Tohen et al. in 2006, Kessler in 2007, and Juul & Nemeroff in 2012.

History Sociological studies of the early 20th century can be regarded as predecessors of today's psychiatric epidemiology. These studies investigated for instance how suicide rates differ between Protestant and Catholic countries or how the risk of having schizophrenia is increased in neighborhood characterized with high levels of social isolation. After World War 2 researchers began using community surveys to assess psychological problems. By the 1980s, the development of new diagnostic assessment instruments and reliable criteria for mental disorders given by the DSM-3 began a trend to estimating the prevalence of mental disorders next to symptoms. As an example, in an attempt to measure the prevalence of mental illness in the United States, Lee Robins and Darrel A. Regier conducted a study called the Epidemiological Catchment Area Project which surveyed samples of the general population at five sites across America. In the study, it was found that about a third of all Americans experience mental illness at some point in their lives. This statistic is often referred to as lifetime prevalence. Today, epidemiological studies focus on the etiology of mental disorders, i.e. the identification and quantification of causes underlying psychiatric problems and their mechanisms, rather than mere estimation of prevalence. It is not ethically possible to experimentally expose study participants to stressors suspected to cause psychiatric disorders, thus epidemiological techniques are required to study the etiology. For this purpose longitudinal studies, which follow children and adults for a long period of time, often for many years, are particularly useful. These allow the study of naturally occurring exposures and how they affect changes in psychiatric symptoms. Two notable historical studies focusing on etiology are the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study and the Christchurch Health and Development Study. These studies began in the 70's and studied the impact of perinatal problems, genetic variants, sexual abuse and other adverse exposures on psychological problems in childhood and later in adulthood.

Assessment of disorders Many different instruments are used to assess mental disorders in epidemiological studies depending on the age of the participants, available recourses and other considerations. Studies featuring adolescents and adults often use structured interviewing, a technique in which interviewers administer a series of questions to determine whether an individual is disordered or nondisordered. Alternatively, questionnaire are used, which can be administered more easily. In epidemiological studies featuring children, psychopathology is often assessed using parent report, however, multi-informant approaches, e.g. the simultaneous use of parent, teachers and self-report, is popular as well.

Exposures studied

Genetic Psychiatric disorders show substantial heritability according to twin studies. A meta-analysis of most twin-studies conducted found a combined heritability of 46% for psychiatric disorders. Given the large contribution of genetic variants on psychiatric disorders, one major focus of psychiatric epidemiology is psychiatric genetics. A combination of family and molecular studies are used within psychiatric epidemiology to uncover the effects of genetics on mental health. Twin studies estimate the influences of all genetic variants and effects, but, due to relying purely on relatedness information, are limited in explaining the specific genetic mechanisms and architecture underlying psychiatric traits. Molecular studies confirm findings from family studies that genetic variants can partly explain the occurrence of psychological problems, e.g. by quantifying the total contribution of common genetic variants. Furthermore, an increasing number of specific genetic loci are being associated with psychiatric disorders in large genome-wide association studies

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Psychiatric epidemiology

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Psychiatric epidemiology claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Psychiatric epidemiology before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Psychiatric epidemiology ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Psychiatric epidemiology

In research: Psychiatric epidemiology appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Psychiatric epidemiology in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Psychiatric epidemiology is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Prevalence of mental disorders, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Psychiatric epidemiology outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Psychiatric epidemiology in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Psychiatric epidemiology means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Psychiatric epidemiology out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Psychiatric epidemiology in simple terms?

Why does Psychiatric epidemiology matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Psychiatric epidemiology?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Psychiatric epidemiology.