HLSC 2P21 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Psychiatric Epidemiology, Mental Disorder, Psychometrics
Document Summary
Historical development: psychiatric illness is recognized through behaviour & not through physiology, history of psychiatric epidemiology. 20th century: wwii prevalence of mental disorders in society is approx. 3-4% based on counts of the number of individuals residing in institutions. 1980s wwii: after the war there was a concern for ptsd population prevalence of psychiatric disorder is about 20% based on clinical and standardized interview. Psychometrics: science of measurement, not exclusively but usually related to subjective phenomena (ie; iq, personality) Caseness; ability to identify the presence of psychiatric illness generally but the inability to differentiate between speci c psychiatric types of disorders. Structured diagnostic interviews, may differentiate among types of mental illnesses, have validity and reliability. (1 out of 3 adults suffers from a mental disorder atleast once in their life. 1 out of 5 either have a relapse or their 1st episode during the previous year) Criterion validity: comparison of the constructed instrument to a gold standard.