ARTICLES
Prevalence and Comorbidity of DSM-III-R Diagnoses in a Birth Cohort of 15 Year Olds

https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199311000-00004Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To document the prevalence and comorbidities of a range of DSM-III-R diagnoses in a birth cohort of approximately 1,000 New Zealand children.

Method

Parent and child reports were obtained on levels of DSM-III-R symptomatology in the child for five major groups of diagnoses: anxiety disorders, mood disorders, conduct/oppositional disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and substance abuse/dependence. Two methods, optimal informant and latent class modeling, were used to combine parent and child reports to produce a “best estimate‘’ of the prevalence of disorder.

Results

Both methods produced very similar results. Overall approximately 25% of children met criteria for at least one DSM-III-R diagnosis. Rates of disorder were higher for girls (33% approximately) than for boys (20% approximately), this difference being largely owing to higher rates of anxiety and mood disorders among girls. There were strong tendencies for disruptive behavior and substance use disorders to cluster together and more diffuse tendencies for anxiety and mood disorders to be comorbid with each other and with other disorders. Only a minority (21%) of children with disorder were in contact with any service for their problems.

Conclusion

These findings are consistent with a number of other studies of adolescent populations, both in terms of the prevalence of disorder and the comorbidities between disorders. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry, 1993, 32, 6:1127–1134.

REFERENCES (42)

  • C. Caron et al.

    Comorbidity in child psychopathology: concepts, issues and research strategies

    J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry

    (1991)
  • C.C. Clogg

    Unrestricted and Restricted Maximum Likelihood Latent Structure Analysis: A Manual for Users

    (1977)
  • H.M. Connell et al.

    Psychiatric disorder in Queensland primary school children

    Australian Paediatric Journal

    (1982)
  • C.K. Conners

    A teacher rating scale for use in drug studies with children

    Am. J. Psychiatry

    (1969)
  • C.K. Conners

    Symptom patterns in hyperkinetic, neurotic and normal children

    Child Dev.

    (1970)
  • A. Costello et al.

    Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC)

    (1982)
  • E.F. Dubow et al.

    Demographic differences in adolescents' health concerns and perceptions of helping agents

    J. Clin. Child Psychology

    (1990)
  • W.A. Eaton et al.

    Latent class analysis of anxiety and depression

    Sociological Methods and Research

    (1989)
  • D.M. Fergusson et al.

    Estimation of method and trait variance in ratings of conduct disorder

    J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry

    (1989)
  • Fergusson, D. M. & Horwood, L. J. (in press), The structure, stability, and correlations of the trait components of...
  • D.M. Fergusson et al.

    A latent class model of child offending

    Criminal Behavior and Mental Health

    (1991)
  • Cited by (371)

    • Profiles of Risk for Self-injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Among System-Impacted Girls of Color

      2023, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
    • Fidelity Assessment of the Treatnet family (TF): A family-based intervention for adolescents with substance use disorders and their families

      2021, Addictive Behaviors Reports
      Citation Excerpt :

      Substance use disorders (SUD) continue to be among one of the most common disorders in adolescence, with a lifetime prevalence of SUD is estimated to range from 3% to 32% (Essau & Delfabbro, 2020; Fergusson, Horwood, & Lynskey, 1993; Lewinsohn, Hops, Roberts, Seeley, & Andrews, 1993; Feehan, McGee, Nada-Raja, & Williams, 1994; Merikangas, Jian-ping, Burstein, et al., 2011; Swendon, Burstein, Case, Conway, Dierker, Je, & Merikangas, 2012).

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This research was funded by grants from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the National Child Health Research Foundation.

    View full text