Summary
The purpose and methodology of a 4-year longitudinal study based on a cohort aged 20 years are presented. A two-stage procedure was chosen; in 1978, 2201 males and 2346 females, aged 19–20, were examined. This sample was representative of the respective age group in the Canton of Zurich. From high and low-scorers (SCL-90), 292 males and 299 females were randomly selected for interview and for a prospective study. Subsequent investigations were carried out by questionnaires and by a personal interview. The instruments chiefly consisted of a semi-structured interview (SPIKE), a clinical syndrome list (SL), a90-item symptom checklist (SCL-90R), a life-event-inventory, scales measuring coping behavior and dissimulation, and an extensive sociological interview dealing with sociodemographic characteristics and social adjustment.
This paper gives an account of the methodological aspects of the study.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Agosti E, Agosti F, Ernst K (1974) Psychisch Kranke in einer Allgemeinpraxis. Schweiz Med Wochenschr 104:322–325
Andrews FM, Messenger RC (1973) Multivariate Nominal Scale Analysis. A report on a new analysis technique and a computer program. Survey Research Center. Institute for Social Research. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor/Michigan
Andrews FM, Morgan JN, Sonquist JA, Klem L (1975) Multiple Classification Analysis. A report on a computer program for multiple regression using categorical predictors. Institute for Social Research. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor/ Michigan (2nd printing)
Bebbington P, Hurry J, Tennant C, Sturt E, Wing JK (1981) Epidemiology of mental disorders in Camberwell. Psychol Med 11:561–579
Binder J, Angst J (1981) A prospective epidemiological study of depressive, psychosomatic and neurotic disturbances (Switzerland). In: Mednick SA, Baert AE (eds), Phillips Bachmann B (ass ed) Prospective Longitudinal Research. An empirical Basis for the Primary Prevention of Psychosocial Disorders. (Published on behalf of the WHO, Regional Office for Europe) Oxford University Press, Oxford New York Toronto Melbourne, pp 157–160
Binder J, Sieber M, Angst J (1979) Verzerrungen bei postalischen Befragungen: das Problem der Nichtantworter. Z exp angewandt Psychol 26:53–71
Bischofberger A, Thomaier K (1982) Normierung einer Life-EventSkala. Lic Phil 1, Zürich
Brown GW, Davidson S, Harris T, Maclean U, Pollock S, Prudo R (1977) Psychiatric Disorder in London and North Uist. Soc Sci Med 11:367–377
Brown GW, Harris T (1982) Fall-Off in the Reporting of Life Events. Soc Psychiatry 17:23–28
Busslinger M (1984) Validierung des Fragebogens SPIKE an Patienten der Psychiatrischen Poliklinik. Med Diss (in preparation), Zürich
Cooper B, Eastwood MR, Sylph J (1970) Psychiatric morbidity and social adjustment in a general practice population. In: Hare EH, Wing JK (eds) World Psychiat Ass-Roy Med Psychol Ass: Psychiatric epidemiology, proc of the int symposium, Aberdeen 1969. Oxford University Press, pp 299–309
Derogatis LR (1977) SCL-90. Administration, Scoring and Procedures Manual-I for the R (revised) version and other instruments of the Psychopathology Rating Scale Series. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Chicago
Derogatis LR, Lipman RS, Rickels K, Uhlenhuth EH, Covi L (1974) The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL): A measure of primary symptom dimensions. In: Pichot P (ed) Psychological Measurements in Psychopharmacology. Mod Probl Pharmacopsychiatry 7. Karger, Basel
Dyker GD (1975) Epidemiology of depression in general practice. J Int Med Res [Suppl] (1)
Eastwood MR (1970) Psychiatric morbidity and physical state in a general practice population. In: Hare EH, Wing JK (eds) World Psychiat Ass-Roy Med Psychol Ass: Psychiatric epidemiology, proc of the int symposium, Aberdeen 1969. Oxford University Press, pp 291–298
Ebnöther D (1980) Norm und Normalität: Überprüfung des Normbereichs sozialen Verhaltens. Lizentiatsarbeit an der Universität Zürich
Essen-Möller E (1956) Individual traits and morbidity in a Swedish rural population. Acta Psychiat et Neurolog Scand [Suppl 100], Copenhagen
Fahrenberg J, Selg H, Hampel R (1973) Das Freiburger Persönlichkeitsinventar FPI, 2. Aufl. Verlag für Psychologie, Hogrefe CJ, Göttingen
Fehr-Suter V (1981) Beschreibung der Lebenssituation chronischschizophrener Patienten im Kanton Aargau. Lic Phil I, Zürich
Finlay-Jones RA, Burvill PW (1977) The prevalence of minor psychiatric morbidity in the community. Psychol Med 7:475–489
Gastpar M (1981) The problem of diagnosing depressive states in general practice. In: Kielholz P (ed) The general practitioner and his depressed patients. A digest of up-to-date knowledge. Hans Huber, Bern Stuttgart Wien, pp 56–62
Geser H, Zbinden E (1970) Einige psychosoziale Korrelate der Hypertonie in einem Industriebetrieb. Z Präv Med 15:303–317
Goldberg DP (1973) The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire-A technique for the identification and assessment of non-psychotic psychiatric illness. (Maudsley Monograph 21). Oxford University Press, London New York Toronto
Goldberg DP, Cooper B, Eastwood MR, Kedward HB, Shepherd M (1970) A standardized psychiatric interview for use in community surveys. Br J Prev Soc Med 24:18–23
Goodman LA (1972) A modified multiple regression approach to the analysis of dichotomous variables. Am Sociol Rev 37:28–46
Gurland BJ, Stone AR, Frank JD, Fleiss JL (1972) The Structured and Scaled Interview to Assess Maladjustment (SSIAM). Arch Gen Psychiatr 27:259 ff.
Hagnell O (1966) A prospective study of the incidence of mental disorder. Svenska Bokförlaget, Lund
Hagnell O, Lanke J, Rorsman B (1982a) Suicide and depression in the male part of the Lundby Study. Changes over time during a 25-year observation period. Neuropsychobiology 8:182–187
Hagnell O, Lanke J, Rorsman B, Öjesjö L (1982b) Are we entering an age of melancholy? Depressive illnesses in a prospective epidemiological study over 25 years: The Lundby Study, Sweden. Psychol Med 12:279–289
Henderson S, Byrne DG, Duncan-Jones P (1981) Neurosis and the Social Environment. Academic Press, Sydney New York London Toronto San Francisco
Hinterhuber H (1982) Epidemiologie psychiatrischer Erkrankungen (Monographie, Forum der Psychiatrie; NF, 13) Ferdinand Enke, Stuttgart
Holmes TH, Rahe RH (1967) The social readjustment rating scale. J Psychosom Res 11:213–218
Hönmann H, Schepank H (1981) Distribution of Neurotic and Psychosomatic Diseases in West Germany. In: Koptagel-Ilal G (ed) Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Psychosomatic Research, Istanbul 1980, pp 403–409
Hull CH, Nie NH (1981) SPSS Update 7-9. New Procedures and Facilities for Releases 7–9. McGraw-Hill, New York
Illes P (1981) Validierung des Fragebogens SPIKE an Diagnosen der Krankengeschichten des Sozialpsychiatrischen Dienstes Oerlikon. Med Diss, Zurich
Isele R, Angst J (1982) Life-Events und prdmorbide soziale Beziehungen bei ersterkrankten Schizophrenen. In: Huber G (ed) Endogene Psychosen: Diagnostik, Basissymptome und biologische Parameter. 5. „Weissenauer” Schizophrenie-Symposion, Bonn 1982. Schattauer, Stuttgart New York, pp 43–57
Isele R, Angst J (1983) Social Disability in Schizophrenia: The controlled prospective BURGHOELZLI STUDY. 1. Case-Finding, Research-Design, and Characteristics of Samples (in preparation)
Jenkins CD, Hurst MW, Rose RM (1979) Life changes. Do people really remember? Arch Gen Psychiatr 36:379–384
Kielholz P (1974) Internationale Umfragen zum Thema „Die Behandlung der Depression in der täglichen Praxis„: Ergebnisse der Umfrage in der Schweiz. In: Kielholz P (ed) Die Depression in der täglichen Praxis. Hans Huber, Bern Stuttgart Wien, pp 150–151
Kielholz P, Ladewig D, Hauswirth R (1979) Psychische Störungen in der täglichen Praxis-Ein Beitrag zur medizinischen Psychologie der Arzt-Patient-Beziehung. Schweiz Rundsch Med (Praxis) 68:1378–1382
Kluegel JR (1978) The cause and cost of racial exclusion from job authority. Am Soc Rev 43:285–301
Kruskal JB, Young FW, Seery JB (1978) How to use KYST-2A, a very flexible program to do multidimensional scaling and unfolding (extensions by Stassen HH). Bell Laboratories, Murray Hills
Leighton AH (1959) My name is legion: Foundations for a theory of man in relation to culture. Basic Books, New York
Malzacher M, Merz J, Ebnöther D (1981) Einschneidende Lebensereignisse im Vorfeld akuter schizophrener Episoden. Arch Psychiat Nervenkr 230:227–242
Meier A (1984) Validierung des Depressionsratings am Fragebogen SPIKE an Patienten der Psychiatrischen Poliklinik. Med Diss, Zürich (in preparation)
Nie NH, Hull CH, Jenkins JG, Steinbrenner K, Bent DH (1975) SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. McGraw-Hill, New York (2nd edition)
Pearlin LI, Schooler C (1978) The Structure of Coping. J Hlth Soc Behav 19:2–21
Pfortmüller J (1983) Validierung des Fragebogens SPIKE IV durch Korrelation mit Standard-Ratingskalen für Depression und Angst. Med Diss, Zürich
Rauchfleisch U (1979) Handbuch zum Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Test (PFT) Bd 1+2. Huber, Bern
Ruppen R, Müller U, Baumann U, Angst J (1973) Prüfung der Aussagegenauigkeit bei einer Befragung über Drogenkonsum. Z Präv Med 18:173–181
Schepank H (1982) Epidemiologie psychogener Erkrankungen. Ein Beitrag zur Grundlagenforschung aus einer Feldstudie. Z Psychosom Med 28:104–125
Schulsinger F, Mednick SA, Knop J (1981) Longitudinal ResearchMethods and Uses in Behavioral Science. Martinus Nijhoff Publ, Boston The Hague London
Shepherd M, Cooper B, Brown AC, Kalton G (1981) Psychiatric Illness in General Practice. Oxford University Press, London (2nd ed)
Srole L (1975) Measurement and Classification in Socio-Psychiatric Epidemiology: Midtown Manhattan Study (1954) and Midtown Manhattan Restudy (1974). J Hlth Soc Behav 4:347–365
Srole L, Langner TS, Michael ST, Opler MK, Rennie TAC (1962) Mental Health in the Metropolis. McGraw Hill, New York
Stassen HH (1983) Classification of schizo-affective patients by multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. In: Angst J, Scharfetter C, Stassen HH (eds) Classification of schizo-affective patients by multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Psychiat Clin 16:254–264
Sturt E, Bebbington P, Hurry J, Tennant C (1981) The Present State Examination used by interviewers from a Survey Agency: report from the MRC Camberwell Community Survey. Psychol Med 11:185–192
Tennant C, Andrews G (1976) A Scale to Measure the Stress of Life Events. Aust NZJ Psychiatr 10:27–32
Tennant C, Andrews G (1977) A Scale to Measure the Stress of Life Events. Aust NZJ Psychiatr 11:163–167
Tur WA (1981) Validierung der Syndromliste SL an Diagnosen der militärischen Untersuchungskommission anIäßlich der Rekrutierung. Med Diss, Zürich
Uhlenhuth E, Haberman SJ (1977) Remembering life events. In: Strauss JS (ed) The Origins and Course of Psychopathology. Plenum, New York
Weissman MM, Paykel ES (1974) The depressed woman, a study of social relationships. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Wing JK, Cooper JE, Sartorius N (1974) Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms: An Instruction Manual for the PSE and Catego Program. Cambridge University Press, London
Zerssen v D (1976) Klinische Selbstbeurteilungsskalen (KSb-S) aus dem Münchner Psychiatrischen Information s-System (PSYCHIS München). Paranoid-Depressivitäts-Skala Parallelformen PD-S und PD-S1. Manual. Beltz Test Gesellschaft mbH, Weinheim
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Project supported by grants 3.804.76 and 3.956.80 from the Swiss National Science Foundation
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Angst, J., Dobler-Mikola, A. & Binder, J. The Zurich study —A prospective epidemiological study of depressive, neurotic and psychosomatic syndromes. Eur Arch Psychiatr Neurol Sci 234, 13–20 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00432878
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00432878