"Mental health literacy": a survey of the public's ability to recognise mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment

OBJECTIVES

To assess the public's recognition of mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of various treatments ("mental health literacy").

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey, in 1995, with structured interviews using vignettes of a person with either depression or schizophrenia.

PARTICIPANTS

A representative national sample of 2031 individuals aged 18-74 years; 1010 participants were questioned about the depression vignette and 1021 about the schizophrenia vignette.

RESULTS

Most of the participants recognised the presence of some sort of mental disorder: 72% for the depression vignette (correctly labelled as depression by 39%) and 84% for the schizophrenia vignette (correctly labelled by 27%). When various people were rated as likely to be helpful or harmful for the person described in the vignette for depression, general practitioners (83%) and counsellors (74%) were most often rated as helpful, with psychiatrists (51%) and psychologists (49%) less so. Corresponding data for the schizophrenia vignette were: counsellors (81%), GPs (74%), psychiatrists (71%) and psychologists (62%). Many standard psychiatric treatments (antidepressants, antipsychotics, electroconvulsive therapy, admission to a psychiatric ward) were more often rated as harmful than helpful, and some nonstandard treatments were rated highly (increased physical or social activity, relaxation and stress management, reading about people with similar problems). Vitamins and special diets were more often rated as helpful than were antidepressants and antipsychotics.

CONCLUSION

If mental disorders are to be recognised early in the community and appropriate intervention sought, the level of mental health literacy needs to be raised. Further, public understanding of psychiatric treatments can be considerably improved.

Validity of the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) in screening for eating disorders in community samples

In order to examine the concurrent and criterion validity of the questionnaire version of the Eating Disorders Examination (EDE-Q), self-report and interview formats were administered to a community sample of women aged 18-45 (n = 208). Correlations between EDE-Q and EDE subscales ranged from 0.68 for Eating Concern to 0.78 for Shape Concern. Scores on the EDE-Q were significantly higher than those of the EDE for all subscales, with the mean difference ranging from 0.25 for Restraint to 0.85 for Shape Concern. Frequency of both objective bulimic episodes (OBEs) and subjective bulimic episodes (SBEs) was significantly correlated between measures. Chance-corrected agreement between EDE-Q and EDE ratings of the presence of OBEs was fair, while that for SBEs was poor. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, based on a sample of 13 cases, indicated that a score of 2.3 on the global scale of the EDE-Q in conjunction with the occurrence of any OBEs and/or use of exercise as a means of weight control, yielded optimal validity coefficients (sensitivity = 0.83, specificity = 0.96, positive predictive value = 0.56). A stepwise discriminant function analysis yielded eight EDE-Q items which best distinguished cases from non-cases, including frequency of OBEs, use of exercise as a means of weight control, use of self-induced vomiting, use of laxatives and guilt about eating. The EDE-Q has good concurrent validity and acceptable criterion validity. The measure appears well-suited to use in prospective epidemiological studies.

Child development risk factors for adult schizophrenia in the British 1946 birth cohort

Schizophrenia has been linked with childhood psychological abnormalities since it was first described, but studies of associations have not used population samples and so may be subject to bias. We have studied associations between adult-onset schizophrenia and childhood sociodemographic, neurodevelopmental, cognitive, and behavioural factors within a cohort of 5362 people born in the week March 3-9, 1946. Childhood data were gathered prospectively and case ascertainment was independent of routine follow-up of this cohort. 30 cases of schizophrenia arose between ages 16 and 43 years (cumulative risk 0.63% [95% CI 0.41-0.86%]). Milestones of motor development were reached later in cases than in controls, particularly walking (difference in means 1.2 months [0.1-2.3], p = 0.005), and up to age 15, cases had more speech problems than had controls (odds ratio 2.8 [0.9-7.8], p = 0.04). Low educational test scores at ages 8, 11, and 15 years were a risk factor, with significant linear trends across population distributions; risk was not confined to very low scores. Solitary play preference at ages 4 and 6 years predicted schizophrenia (odds ratios 2.1, 2.5, p = 0.05). At 13 years cases rated themselves as less socially confident (p for trend, 0.04). At 15 years, teachers rated cases as being more anxious in social situations (p for trend 0.003), independent of intelligence quotient. A health visitor's rating of the mother as having below average mothering skills and understanding of her child at age 4 years was a predictor of schizophrenia in that child (odds ratio 5.8 [0.8-31.8], p = 0.02). Differences between children destined to develop schizophrenia as adults and the general population were found across a range of developmental domains. As with some other adult illnesses, the origins of schizophrenia may be found in early life.

Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q): norms for young adult women

In order to establish norms for the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) among young adult women, the questionnaire was administered to a large general population sample of women aged 18-42 yr in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) region of Australia. Normative data were derived for EDE-Q subscales and for the occurrence of specific eating disorder behaviours, for each of five age bands (18-22, 23-27, 28-32, 33-37, 38-42 yr). Mean scores (SDs) for the Restraint, Eating Concern, Weight Concern and Shape Concern subscales for the total sample (n = 5,255) were, respectively, 1.30 (1.40), 0.76 (1.06), 1.79 (1.51) and 2.23 (1.65). The mean global score was 1.52 (1.25). The regular occurrence of objective and subjective overeating episodes was reported by 10.6% and 12.7% of participants, respectively. The regular use of self-induced vomiting, laxative misuse, and use of diuretics, was reported by 1.4%, 1.0%, and 0.3%, of participants, respectively, while 2.2% of participants reported regularly using diet pills. "Extreme dietary restraint" and "excessive exercise" were reported by 3.4% and 4.9% of participants, respectively. Both attitudinal and behavioural features of eating disorder psychopathology tended to decrease with increasing age. These data will inform researchers intending to use the EDE-Q in epidemiological studies.

AMPK/α-Ketoglutarate Axis Dynamically Mediates DNA Demethylation in the Prdm16 Promoter and Brown Adipogenesis

Promoting brown adipose tissue (BAT) development is an attractive strategy for the treatment of obesity, as activated BAT dissipates energy through thermogenesis; however, the mechanisms controlling BAT formation are not fully understood. We hypothesized that as a master regulator of energy metabolism, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) may play a direct role in the process and found that AMPKα1 (PRKAA1) ablation reduced Prdm16 expression and impaired BAT development. During early brown adipogenesis, the cellular levels of α-ketoglutarate (αKG), a key metabolite required for TET-mediated DNA demethylation, were profoundly increased and required for active DNA demethylation of the Prdm16 promoter. AMPKα1 ablation reduced isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 activity and cellular αKG levels. Remarkably, postnatal AMPK activation with AICAR or metformin rescued obesity-induced suppression of brown adipogenesis and thermogenesis. In summary, AMPK is essential for the epigenetic control of BAT development through αKG, thus linking a metabolite to progenitor cell differentiation and thermogenesis.

Onset of obesity in a 36 year birth cohort study

A large national cohort of children studied from birth to 36 years was used to test the predictive value of childhood obesity for obesity in adult life. Only 21% (39) of obese 36 year olds had been obese at age 11 years, and even when associated social factors were taken into account the correctly predicted percentage was much lower than the prediction rate achieved using body mass data from age 26 years. The comparatively poor predictive value of childhood obesity and the association of adult obesity with educational achievements and socioeconomic circumstances of family of origin emphasise the need for encouraging good nutritional and exercise habits rather than placing undue emphasis on the control of childhood obesity.

Validity of the Malaise Inventory in general population samples

BACKGROUND

The Malaise Inventory is a commonly used self-completion scale for assessing psychiatric morbidity. There is some evidence that it may represent two separate psychological and somatic subscales rather than a single underlying factor of distress. This paper provides further information on the factor structure of the Inventory and on the reliability and validity of the total scale and two sub-scales.

METHODS

Two general population samples completed the full Inventory: over 11,000 subjects from the National Child Development Study at ages 23 and 33, and 544 mothers of adolescents included in the Isle of Wight epidemiological surveys.

RESULTS

The internal consistency of the full 24-item scale and the 15-item psychological subscale were found to be acceptable, but the eight-item somatic sub-scale was less reliable. Factor analysis of all 24 items identified a first main general factor and a second more purely psychological factor. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated that the validity of the scale held for men and women separately and for different socio-economic groups, by reference to external criteria covering current or recent psychiatric morbidity and service use, and that the psychological sub-scale had no greater validity than the full scale.

CONCLUSIONS

This study did not support the separate scoring of a somatic sub-scale of the Malaise Inventory. Use of the 15-item psychological sub-scale can be justified on the grounds of reduced time and cost for completion, with little loss of reliability or validity, but this approach would not significantly enhance the properties of the Inventory by comparison with the full 24-item scale. Inclusion of somatic items may be more problematic when the full scale is used to compare particular sub-populations with different propensities for physical morbidity, such as different age groups, and in these circumstances it would be a sensible precaution to utilise the 15-item psychological sub-scale.

Age differences in depression and anxiety symptoms: a structural equation modelling analysis of data from a general population sample

BACKGROUND

There is debate as to whether the elderly are really at lower risk for depressive disorders, or whether endorsement of symptoms is artefactually low. The present paper assesses the effects of age on anxiety and depression, and examines whether age has direct effects on self-report of individual symptoms independent of its effect on the underlying dimensions of anxiety and depression.

METHODS

Structural equation modelling was used to assess the structure of the items and their associations with age and a number of demographic variables. The sample of 2622 participants aged between 18 and 79 years from Canberra (Australia) was drawn from the Electoral Roll. Two instruments were used: the anxiety and depression scales of Goldberg et al. (1988) and the Personal Disturbance Scale from the DSSI of Bedford et al. (1976).

RESULTS

Both scales were found to fit satisfactorily to a two factor model. Age correlated negatively with depression. After controlling for the effects of gender, marital status, education and financial difficulty, direct effects of age were found on items from both instruments, indicating that certain depression items were associated with a differential probability of endorsement in older people, even when the level of depression was equal to that of younger people. Items with direct age effects reflected physical (feeling slowed down; waking early) and psychological (hopeless about the future) components of depression. Direct effects of age on items from both anxiety scales were also found.

CONCLUSIONS

The nature of the depression and anxiety experienced by younger and older people may differ qualitatively. Depression may be associated with an increase in somatic symptoms linked to physical changes and to an increase in endorsement of items which reflect the narrowing of opportunities in the long-term.

Helpfulness of interventions for mental disorders: beliefs of health professionals compared with the general public

BACKGROUND

The study aimed to compare the beliefs of health professionals about the potential helpfulness of various mental health interventions with those of the general public.

METHOD

Surveys were carried out in Australia of 872 general practitioners, 1128 psychiatrists, 454 clinical psychologists and 2031 members of the public. Respondents were presented with a case vignette describing either a person with depression or one with schizophrenia. Respondents were asked to rate the likely helpfulness of various types of professional and non-professional help and of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions.

RESULTS

The professionals gave much high ratings than the public to the helpfulness of antidepressants for depression, and of antipsychotics and admission to a psychiatric ward for schizophrenia. Conversely, the public tended to give much more favourable ratings to vitamins and minerals and special diets for both depression and schizophrenia, and to reading self-help books for schizophrenia.

CONCLUSION

The beliefs that health practitioners hold about mental disorders differ greatly from those of the general public. There is a need for mental health education campaigns to help close the gap between professional and public beliefs.

Clinical, agricultural, and evolutionary biology of myostatin: a comparative review

The discovery of myostatin and our introduction to the "Mighty Mouse" over a decade ago spurred both basic and applied research and impacted popular culture as well. The myostatin-null genotype produces "double muscling" in mice and livestock and was recently described in a child. The field's rapid growth is by no means surprising considering the potential benefits of enhancing muscle growth in clinical and agricultural settings. Indeed, several recent studies suggest that blocking myostatin's inhibitory effects could improve the clinical treatment of several muscle growth disorders, whereas comparative studies suggest that these actions are at least partly conserved. Thus, neutralizing myostatin's effects could also have agricultural significance. Extrapolating between studies that use different vertebrate models, particularly fish and mammals, is somewhat confusing because whole genome duplication events have resulted in the production and retention of up to four unique myostatin genes in some fish species. Such comparisons, however, suggest that myostatin's actions may not be limited to skeletal muscle per se, but may additionally influence other tissues including cardiac muscle, adipocytes, and the brain. Thus, therapeutic intervention in the clinic or on the farm must consider the potential of alternative side effects that could impact these or other tissues. In addition, the presence of multiple and actively diversifying myostatin genes in most fish species provides a unique opportunity to study adaptive molecular evolution. It may also provide insight into myostatin's nonmuscle actions as results from these and other comparative studies gain visibility in biomedical fields.

Health, cognitive, and psychosocial factors as predictors of mortality in an elderly community sample

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To examine whether cognitive and psychosocial factors predict mortality once physical health is controlled.

DESIGN

A prospective study of community dwelling elderly. Mortality was assessed over a period of 3-4 years after the baseline assessment of predictors. The data were analysed using the Cox proportional hazards model.

SETTING

Canberra and Queanbeyan, Australia.

PARTICIPANTS

A sample of 897 people aged 70 or over and living in the community, drawn from the compulsory electoral roll.

RESULTS

For the sample as a whole, the significant predictors of mortality were male sex, poor physical health, poor cognitive functioning, and low neuroticism. Men had an adjusted relative risk of mortality of 2.5 compared with women. For the male sub-sample, poor self rated health and a poor performance on a speeded cognitive task were significant predictors, while for women, greater disability, low systolic blood pressure, and a low score on a dementia screening test were the strongest predictors.

CONCLUSIONS

Mortality was predicted by physical ill health and poor cognitive functioning. Psychosocial factors such as socioeconomic status, psychiatric symptoms, and social support did not add to the prediction of mortality, once sex, physical health, and cognitive functioning were controlled. Mortality among men was more than twice that of women, even when adjusted for other predictors.

An analysis of diversity in the cognitive performance of elderly community dwellers: individual differences in change scores as a function of age

This longitudinal study investigated whether age is associated with increases in interindividual variability across 4 ability domains using a sample of 426 elderly community dwellers followed over 3.5 years. Interindividual variability in change scores increased with age for memory, spatial functioning, and speed but not for crystallized intelligence for the full sample and in a subsample that excluded dementia or probable dementia cases. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that being female, having weaker muscle strength, and having greater symptoms of illness and greater depression were associated with overall greater variability in cognitive scores. Having a higher level of education was associated with reduced variability. These findings are consistent with the view that there is a greater range of responses at older ages, that certain domains of intelligence are less susceptible to variation than others and that variables other than age affect cognitive performance in later life.

Assessing quality of life in eating disorder patients

OBJECTIVE

To examine quality of life among subgroups of eating disorder patients.

METHOD

Self-report questionnaires which included two quality of life measures were completed by 87 individuals referred for treatment to the Australian Capital Territory Eating Disorders Day Program. Health-related quality of life, as measured by the Medical Outcomes Study 12-item Short Form Mental Component Summary scale, and subjective quality of life, as measured by subscales of the World Health Organization Brief Quality of Life Assessment Scale (WHOQOL-BREF), were compared among individuals who received the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa purging subtype (n = 15), anorexia nervosa restricting subtype (n = 19), bulimia nervosa (n = 40) and binge eating disorder (n = 10), and among a general population sample of young adult women employed as a control group (n = 495).

RESULTS

Eating disorder patients, when considered together, showed marked impairment in both health-related and subjective quality of life relative to normal control subjects. However, in both domains, restricting anorexia nervosa patients reported significantly better quality of life than other patient groups, after controlling for levels of general psychological distress. Scores on the Social Relationships subscale of the WHOQOL-BREF among individuals in this subgroup were similar to those of normal control subjects.

CONCLUSIONS

Reliance on any one instrument is likely to be misleading in assessing the quality of life of eating disorder patients. Careful consideration needs to be given to the assessment of restricting anorexia nervosa patients in particular.

Age group differences in psychological distress: the role of psychosocial risk factors that vary with age

BACKGROUND

There is continuing controversy about how age affects depression and anxiety, with a lack of consistent results across studies. Two reasons for this inconsistency are age bias in measures and different patterns of exposure to risk factors across age groups in various studies.

METHOD

Data on anxiety and depression symptoms were collected in a community survey of 7485 persons aged 20-24, 40-44 or 60-64 years. These measures were investigated for factorial invariance across age groups. Data were also collected on a wide range of potential risk factors, including social, physical health and personal factors, with the aim of determining whether these factors might partly or wholly account for age group differences.

RESULTS

The invariance of correlated latent factors representing anxiety and depression was examined across age groups, and a generalized measure of psychological distress was computed. Depression, anxiety and psychological distress showed a decline across age groups for females and a decline from 40-44 to 60-64 years for males. Some of these age differences were accounted for by other risk factors, with the most important being recent crises at work and negative social relationships with family and friends.

CONCLUSION

Psychological distress generally declined across the age range 20-64 years and this was not attributable to measurement bias. Differential exposure to risk factors explained some, but not all, of the age group difference. Therefore other mechanisms that explain the lower level of distress in older age groups remain to be identified.

Patterns of association between alcohol consumption and symptoms of depression and anxiety in young adults

AIMS

Recent epidemiological findings indicate that non-drinkers as well as hazardous/harmful drinkers experience higher levels of distress than moderate drinkers. Little is known about the age at which this develops. This paper examines levels of affect, depression and anxiety over the full range of alcohol consumption in young adults.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional findings from the first wave of a prospective, longitudinal study are presented.

PARTICIPANTS

The general population sample comprised of 2404 young adults (aged 20-24 years). living in the Canberra region. Measures included: the Goldberg Depression and Anxiety scales, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.

FINDINGS

For men, both non/occasional and hazardous/harmful consumption were associated with lower levels of positive affect and higher levels of anxiety and depression. The higher levels of distress evident for male abstainers were related to being less extroverted and less healthy and not to past hazardous/harmful alcohol consumption, current tobacco or marijuana use. For women, only hazardous/harmful drinkers were found to have higher levels of depression and negative affect. Hazardous/harmful consumption was related to using marijuana, tobacco and recent stressful events in both men and women.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher levels of distress are already evident in male non-drinkers in early adulthood. The findings counter theories that distress in non-drinkers is due to past hazardous/harmful alcohol consumption, marijuana or tobacco use, or characteristics in common with hazardous/harmful drinkers. Alcohol use disorders and mental health problems are pertinent issues for young adults. However, more understanding is needed of the experiences of non-drinkers in an alcohol consuming culture.

Pancreatic glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor couples to multiple G proteins and activates mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways in Chinese hamster ovary cells

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells stably expressing the human insulin receptor and the rat glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor (CHO/GLPR) were used to study the functional coupling of the GLP-1 receptor with G proteins and to examine the regulation of the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling pathway by GLP-1. We showed that ligand activation of GLP-1 receptor led to increased incorporation of GTP-azidoanilide into Gs alpha, Gq/11 alpha, and Gi1,2 alpha, but not Gi3 alpha. GLP-1 increased p38 MAP kinase activity 2.5- and 2.0-fold over the basal level in both CHO/GLPR cells and rat insulinoma cells (RIN 1046-38), respectively. Moreover, GLP-1 induced phosphorylation of the immediate upstream kinases of p38, MKK3/MKK6, in CHO/GLPR and RIN 1046-38 cells. Ligand-stimulated GLP-1 receptor produced 1.45- and 2.7-fold increases in tyrosine phosphorylation of 42-kDa extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in CHO/GLPR and RIN 1046-38 cells, respectively. In CHO/GLPR cells, these effects of GLP-1 on the ERK and p38 MAP kinase pathways were inhibited by pretreatment with cholera toxin (CTX), but not with pertussis toxin. The combination of insulin and GLP-1 resulted in an additive response (1.6-fold over insulin alone) that was attenuated by CTX. In contrast, the ability of insulin alone to activate these pathways was insensitive to either toxin. Our study indicates a direct coupling between the GLP-1 receptor and several G proteins, and that CTX-sensitive proteins are required for GLP-1-mediated activation of MAP kinases.

High potency antagonists of the pancreatic glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor

GLP-1-(7-36)-amide and exendin-4-(1-39) are glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, whereas exendin-(9-39) is the only known antagonist. To analyze the transition from agonist to antagonist and to identify the amino acid residues involved in ligand activation of the GLP-1 receptor, we used exendin analogs with successive N-terminal truncations. Chinese hamster ovary cells stably transfected with the rat GLP-1 receptor were assayed for changes in intracellular cAMP caused by the test peptides in the absence or presence of half-maximal stimulatory doses of GLP-1. N-terminal truncation of a single amino acid reduced the agonist activity of the exendin peptide, whereas N-terminal truncation of 3-7 amino acids produced antagonists that were 4-10-fold more potent than exendin-(9-39). N-terminal truncation of GLP-1 by 2 amino acids resulted in weak agonist activity, but an 8-amino acid N-terminal truncation inactivated the peptide. Binding studies performed using 125I-labeled GLP-1 confirmed that all bioactive peptides specifically displaced tracer with high potency. In a set of exendin/GLP-1 chimeric peptides, substitution of GLP-1 sequences into exendin-(3-39) produced loss of antagonist activity with conversion to a weak agonist. The results show that receptor binding and activation occur in separate domains of exendin, but they are more closely coupled in GLP-1.

Symptoms of depression and anxiety during adult life: evidence for a decline in prevalence with age

BACKGROUND

To test the hypothesis that the prevalence, in the general population, of symptoms of depression and anxiety declines with age.

METHODS

A general population sample of 2725 persons aged 18 to 79 years was administered two inventories for current symptoms of depression and anxiety, together with measures of neuroticism and of exposures that may confer increased risk of such symptoms.

RESULTS

Symptoms of depression showed a decline with age in both men and women. For anxiety, the decline was statistically significant for women but not consistently so for men. For the risk factors examined, there was a decline with age in the neuroticism score, the frequency of adverse life events, being seriously short of money and having had parents who separated or divorced. Further analysis showed that the association between age and a declining symptom score cannot be entirely attributed to these risk factors, with the single exception of neuroticism. The latter is itself likely to be contaminated by current symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Unless these findings are due to bias in the sample of those who agreed to participate, they add to the evidence that symptoms of depression and to a lesser extent of anxiety decline in prevalence with age. Some risk factors also decline with age. It now has to be determined if these cross-sectional observations are also to be found in longitudinal data; and what process may underlie this striking change in mental health during adulthood.

The course of depression in the elderly: a longitudinal community-based study in Australia

BACKGROUND

We report the outcome of depressive states after 3-4 years in a community sample of the elderly.

METHODS

A sample of 1045 persons aged 70+ years in 1990-1 was re-interviewed after 3.6 years.

RESULTS

Mortality (21.7%) and refusal or non-availability (10.4%) were higher in those who initially had had a diagnosis or symptoms of depression. Of those with an ICD-10 depressive episode in 1990-1, 13% retained that diagnosis. Of those who were not depressed initially only 2.5% had become cases. Depression was unrelated to age or apolipoprotein E genotype. The best predictors of the number of depressive symptoms at follow-up was the number at Wave 1, followed by deterioration in health and in activities of daily living, high neuroticism, poor current health, poor social support, low current activity levels and high service use. Depressive symptoms at Wave 1 did not predict subsequent cognitive decline or dementia.

CONCLUSIONS

Non-random sample attrition is unavoidable. ICD-10 criteria yield more cases than other systems, while continuous measures of symptoms confer analytical advantages. Risk factors for depressive states in the elderly have been further identified. The prognosis for these states is favourable. At the community level, depressive symptoms do not seem to predict cognitive decline, as they do in referred series.

Non-linear relationships in associations of depression and anxiety with alcohol use

BACKGROUND

Many studies have demonstrated co-morbidity of alcohol abuse/dependence with mood and anxiety disorders but relatively little is known about anxiety and depression across the full continua of alcohol consumption and problems associated with drinking.

METHODS

Participants from a general population sample (N = 2725) aged 18-80 years completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and four measures of negative affect (two depression and two anxiety symptom scales) included in a self-completion questionnaire.

RESULTS

High consumption, AUDIT total score, and AUDIT problems score were associated with high negative affect scores in participants under 60 years old (ORs in the range 1.80-2.83). Graphical and statistical analyses using continuous measures of alcohol use/problems and negative affect identified non-linear relationships where abstainers and occasional drinkers, as well as heavy and problem drinkers, were at risk of high anxiety and depression levels. This pattern, however, was not found in those aged > or = 60 years. The U-shaped relationship was not an artefact of abstainers being typical of the general population in their distribution of negative affect.

CONCLUSIONS

Studies of co-morbidity should acknowledge the possibility of non-linear associations and employ both continuous and discrete measures. Abstainers, as well as heavy drinkers, are at increased risk of symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders. Psychosocial factors may play a role in the U-shaped relationship between alcohol consumption and mortality.

Public beliefs about the helpfulness of interventions for depression: effects on actions taken when experiencing anxiety and depression symptoms

OBJECTIVE

Previous research has shown that the public have different beliefs to mental health professionals about the helpfulness of interventions for mental disorders. However, it is not known whether the public's beliefs actually influence their behaviour when they develop psychiatric symptoms.

METHOD

A postal survey of 3,109 Australian adults was used to assess beliefs about the helpfulness of a broad range of interventions for depression, as well as respondents' current level of anxiety and depression symptoms and any history of treated depression. A follow-up survey of 422 persons who had a high level of symptoms at baseline was conducted 6 months later. These people were asked which interventions they had used to reduce their symptoms. An analysis was carried out to see whether beliefs and other factors at baseline predicted subsequent use of interventions.

RESULTS

There were some major discrepancies between the ranking of interventions as likely to be helpful and the ranking of how frequently they were actually used. Interventions involving mental health professionals were often rated as likely to be helpful, but were rarely used in practice. Other simple, cheap and readily available interventions were used the most frequently, but were not the most likely to be rated as helpful. The most consistent predictors across all interventions used were gender, history of treatment, current symptoms and belief in a particular intervention. Of particular interest was the finding that beliefs in the helpfulness of antidepressants predicted their use. However, beliefs were not predictors of use for all interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

Beliefs about the helpfulness of an intervention did not always predict actual use of that intervention, although beliefs did predict use of antidepressants. Therefore, campaigns that change public beliefs about effective treatments may also influence actual use of treatments. Interventions preferred by professionals are not frequently used at present. Most people with anxiety and depression symptoms rely primarily on simple self-help interventions, the effectiveness of which has been little researched.

Loss and representativeness in a 43 year follow up of a national birth cohort

STUDY OBJECTIVE

The aim was to describe rates of loss and assessment of representativeness during 43 years of a national birth cohort study.

DESIGN

The study population is a class stratified random sample of all single, legitimate births that occurred during one single week in 1946; it has been studied at regular intervals, so far to 1989.

MAIN RESULTS

Losses through death and emigration were comparable to those in the national population of the same age. Response rates from the population resident in Britain have remained high, and the responding population is in most respects representative of the native population born in the early postwar years. Response rates within some serious physical illnesses did not differ from those of the healthy population.

CONCLUSIONS

The continuing high response rate and representativeness of this national birth cohort is likely to be the result of home based data collections and of the regular contact to provide feedback of information and to check addresses of the study population.

Objective and subjective bulimic episodes in the classification of bulimic-type eating disorders: another nail in the coffin of a problematic distinction

We sought to further explore the validity of the distinction between objective bulimic episodes (OBEs) and subjective bulimic episodes (SBEs) in the study of bulimic-type eating disorders. Drawing on data obtained at the second, interview phase of a large-scale epidemiological study, we identified mutually exclusive subgroups of women with bulimic-type eating disorders who engaged in regular OBEs but not SBEs (n = 37) or regular SBEs but not OBEs (n = 52). These subgroups were compared on a wide range of outcomes, including socio-demographic characteristics, current levels of eating disorder psychopathology, general psychological distress and impairment in role functioning, current and lifetime impairment in quality of life specifically associated with an eating problem, (self)-recognition of an eating problem, health service utilization and use of psychotropic medication. The only difference between groups was that participants who reported regular OBEs were heavier than those who reported regular SBEs. The findings converge with those of previous research in suggesting that bulimic-type eating disorders characterized by regular SBEs, but not OBEs, do not differ in any clinically meaningful way from those characterized by regular OBEs, but not SBEs. Inclusion of bulimic-type eating disorders characterized by regular SBEs as a provisional category requiring further research in DSM-V appears warranted.

Use of NS-4 peptides to identify type-specific antibody to hepatitis C virus genotypes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

The 5' end of the NS-4 protein of different genotypes of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is highly variable in nucleotide and inferred amino acid sequence, with frequent predicted amino acid substitutions between all six of the major HCV genotypes described to date. This region has been shown to be antigenic by epitope mapping, and elicits antibody in HCV-infected individuals with a detectable type-specific component. We have used this sequence data to specify branched peptides for an indirect binding/competition assay to detect type-specific antibody to each major genotype. A total of 183 out of 210 samples (87%) from blood donors and patients with chronic hepatitis C infected with genotypes 1 to 6 showed detectable type-specific antibody to NS-4 peptides that in almost all cases (> 97 %) corresponded to the genotype detected by a PCR typing method. These findings demonstrate the existence of major antigenic differences between genotypes of HCV, and indicate how infection with different variants of HCV may be detected by a serological test.