Past Issues

　In China, the epidemiological study on mental disorders is a great achieve-ment. The criteria of ICD-10and DSM-IVare applied in both clinical practice and research in China all the time. Using ICD-9and DSM-III, the early large scale epi-demiological studies on mental disorders were carried out in 1982 and 1993. In the 1982 survey, the overall point prevalence and the lifetime prevalence of all mental disorders from 12 study areas were 1.05% and 1.27%, respectively. In the 1993 survey, the point prevalence and lifetime prevalence of all mental disorders from seven areas were 1.12% and 1.35%, respectively. In recent 10 years, CIDIand SCIDhave been utilized in epidemiological studies in China and obtained different prevalences of mental disorders using different methodologies in different regions. In 2002, the World Mental Health Survey was conducted in urban Beijing and Shanghai using CIDI. The 12-month prevalence estimate of any disorder was 7.0% without psychotic disorders in the sample of 2,633 in Beijing and 2,568 in Shang-hai. The latest survey was a cross-sectional study in 2,469 residents aged 16 and over in Beijing. The 30-day, 12-month, and lifetime prevalences of mood disorder were 0.87%, 3.40% and 6.55%. Those of anxiety disorders were 3.08%, 3.90%, and 6.37%. Those of substance abuse/dependence disorders were 0.37%, 1.92% and 5.58%. Furthermore, it should be put in priority to study disease burden of mental disorder after many cross-sectional regional and nationwide studies.