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Objective: This paper provides an overview of the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS) and a summary of findings relating to child and adolescent mental health. Method: The CHDS is a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1265 children born in the Christchurch (New Zealand) urban region during mid 1977. This cohort has now been studied from birth to age 21. Results: The paper examines the ways in which the study has been able to examine a wide range of issues. Key issues examined include: (i) measurement of disorder (respondent effects; dimensionality; scales vs categories); (ii) prevalence and treatment of disorder; (iii) stability and continuity of disorders; (iv) the contribution of risk and aetiological factors (e.g. lead exposure, parental divorce, child abuse, family adversity, sexual orientation) to psychosocial adjustment; and (v) the psychosocial consequences of mental health problems in adolescence. Conclusions: The study findings illustrate the many advantages of a longitudinal study, such as the CHDS, in providing methodologically sound, theoretically relevant and cost effective research that caters for the interests of multiple end-users including the scientific community, clinicians and applied policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper provides a descriptive statistical overview of Mental Health Review Tribunal outcomes from 1992 to 2011.Method: A database used by administrators of the Mental Health Review Tribunal to store information on applicants and their hearing outcomes was subjected to basic descriptive analysis.Results: A total of 3117 applications were received, with most applications received from males (n=2039, 65%) of New Zealand European ethnicity and a mean age of 49 years. A similar number of applications were received from inpatient and community patients (35%, 28% respectively). There was only a small percentage (7%) of applicants who were released and the number of applications withdrawn before a hearing took place was high, at 45%.Conclusion: The success rates of New Zealand Mental Health Review Tribunal applicants is low compared with some international jurisdictions, while at the same time withdrawals are high, warranting further investigation. Applicants in the community are underrepresented, which is of concern in the context of rising use of community treatment orders. Future research focused on service users' experiences of using the Mental Health Review Tribunal and improvements to the existing data stored on applicants are also suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper provides a conceptual, historical and legislative overview of fitness issues. These include fitness to be interrogated or charged, to plead, to be tried and to be sentenced in the context of Australia and New Zealand. Conclusions: Legislation regarding fitness issues needs to strike a balance between protecting the rights of mentally impaired defendants to a fair trial process and recognizing that mental illness in itself does not absolutely preclude participation in a trial process or necessarily diminish criminal responsibility. Although the key determinants of fitness seem to be the ability to cope with court processes and communicate with counsel, the application of clinical judgement to legal criteria is not always straightforward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To estimate the lifetime prevalence and projected lifetime risk at age 75 years of DSM-IV disorders in New Zealand. Method: A nationwide face-to-face household survey carried out in 2003–2004. A fully structured diagnostic interview, the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 3.0), was used. There were 12 992 completed interviews from participants aged 16 years and over. The overall response rate was 73.3%. In this paper, the outcomes reported are lifetime prevalence and projected lifetime risk at age 75 years. Results: The lifetime prevalence of any disorder was 39.5%. The lifetime prevalences for disorder groups were: anxiety disorders, 24.9%; mood disorders, 20.2%; substance use disorders, 12.3%; and eating disorders, 1.7%. The prevalences for all disorders were higher in the younger age groups. Females had higher prevalences of anxiety, mood and eating disorders compared with males; males had higher prevalences of substance use disorders. The estimated projected lifetime risk of any disorder at age 75 years was 46.6% with the median age of onset being 18 years. Adjustment for age, sex, education and household income did not remove all differences between Māori and the composite other ethnic group in the risk of disorder (hazard ratio = 1.1–1.4). After adjustment, hazard ratios for Pacific people ranged from 0.8 to 2.5. Conclusions: These results confirm those of other studies: mental disorders are relatively common and tend to have early onset. Females are more likely to experience anxiety, mood and eating disorders than males, who experience more substance use disorders. Adjustment for socioeconomic factors and demography does not explain all ethnic differences, although remaining differences are small relative to cohort and even sex differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of chronic physical conditions, and the risk factors for those conditions, among those with 12 month mental disorder; to estimate the prevalence of 12 month mental disorder among those with chronic physical conditions. Method: A nationally representative face-to-face household survey was carried out in October 2003 to December 2004 with 12 992 participants aged 16 years and over, achieving a response rate of 73.3%. Mental disorders were measured with the World Mental Health version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 3.0). Physical conditions were self-reported. All associations are reported adjusted for age and sex. Results: People with (any) mental disorder, relative to those without mental disorder, had higher prevalences of several chronic physical conditions (chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and respiratory conditions) and chronic condition risk factors (smoking, overweight/obesity, hazardous alcohol use). Around a quarter of people with chronic physical conditions had a comorbid mental disorder compared with 15% of the population without chronic conditions. Significant relationships occurred between some mental disorders and obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes for females, but not for males. Conclusions: This paper provides evidence of substantial comorbidity between mental disorders and chronic physical conditions in New Zealand. This should be borne in mind by clinicians working in both mental health and medical services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To estimate the 12 month prevalence of DSM-IV disorders in New Zealand, and associated interference with life and severity. Method: A nationally representative face-to-face household survey carried out in 2003–2004. A fully structured diagnostic interview, the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 3.0) was used. There were 12 992 completed interviews from participants aged 16 years and over. The overall response rate was 73.3%. In this paper the outcomes reported are 12 month prevalence, interference with life and severity for individual disorders. Results: The prevalence of any disorder in the past 12 months was 20.7%. The prevalences for disorder groups were: anxiety disorders 14.8%, mood disorders 7.9%, substance use disorders 3.5%, eating disorders 0.5%. The highest prevalences for individual disorders were for specific phobia (7.3%), major depressive disorder (5.7%) and social phobia (5.1%). Interference with life was higher for mood disorders than for anxiety disorders. Drug dependence, bipolar disorder and dysthymia had the highest proportion of severe cases (over 50%), when severity was assessed over the disorder itself and all comorbid disorders. Overall, only 31.7% of cases were classified as mild with 45.6% moderate and 22.7% serious. Conclusions: Compared with other World Mental Health survey sites New Zealand has relatively high prevalences, although almost always a little lower than for the US. For all disorders, except specific phobia, interference with life was reported to be moderate, on average, which has lead to less than a third of cases being classified as mild. Most people who have ever met full DSM-IV criteria, including the impairment criterion, and who experience symptoms or an episode in the past 12 months find that their disorders impact on their lives to a non-trivial extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe the prevalence of mental disorders (period prevalence across aggregated disorders, 12 month and lifetime prevalence) among Māori in Te Rau Hinengaro: The New Zealand Mental Health Survey. Method: Te Rau Hinengaro: The New Zealand Mental Health Survey, undertaken between 2003 and 2004, was a nationally representative face-to-face household survey of 12 992 New Zealand adults aged 16 years and over, including 2595 Māori. Ethnicity was measured using the 2001 New Zealand census ethnicity question. A fully structured diagnostic interview, the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 3.0), was used to measure disorder. The overall response rate was 73.3%. This paper presents selected findings for the level and pattern of mental disorder prevalence among Māori. Results: Māori lifetime prevalence of any disorder was 50.7%, 12 month prevalence 29.5% and 1 month prevalence 18.3%. The most common 12 month disorders were anxiety (19.4%), mood (11.4%) and substance (8.6%) disorders and the most common lifetime disorders were anxiety (31.3%), substance (26.5%) and mood (24.3%) disorders. Levels of lifetime comorbidity were high with 12 month prevalence showing 16.4% of Māori with one disorder, 7.6% with two disorders and 5.5% with three or more disorders. Twelve-month disorders were more common in Māori females than in males (33.6% vs 24.8%) and in younger age groups: 16–24 years, 33.2%; 25–44 years, 32.9%; 45–64 years, 23.7%; and 65 years and over, 7.9%. Disorder prevalence was greatest among Māori with the lowest equivalized household income and least education. However, differences by urbanicity and region were not significant. Of Māori with any 12 month disorder, 29.6% had serious, 42.6% had moderate and 27.8% had mild disorders. Conclusion: Mental disorders overall and specific disorder groups (anxiety, mood and substance) are common among Māori and measures of severity indicate that disorders have considerable health impact. Findings provide a platform for informing public health policy and health sector responses to meeting mental health needs of Māori. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The paper describes the methodologies and results obtained on a large cohort of prison inmates in New Zealand who were screened for psychiatric disorder. Method: All women and remanded male inmates in New Zealand prisons, and a randomly selected cohort of 18% of sentenced male inmates were interviewed. Interviewers used the Composite International Diagnostic Interview – Automated to establish DSM-IV diagnoses, and the Personality Disorders Questionnaire to identify personality disorder. All prisons in New Zealand were visited. Results: The results indicate markedly elevated prevalence rates for major mental disorder in the prison population when compared with community samples. This is especially the case for substance misuse, psychotic disorders, major depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive– compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. Of particular concern is not only the increased prevalence rates for schizophrenia and related disorders but also the high level of comorbidity with substance misuse disorders demonstrated by this group. While 80.8% of inmates diagnosed with bipolar disorder were receiving psychiatric treatment in the prison, only 46.4% of depressed inmates and 37% of those suffering from psychosis were receiving treatment. Maori inmates were grossly overrepresented in the remand, female and male sentenced inmate population compared with the general population. Conclusions: A significant increase in provision of mental health services is required to cope with the high number of mentally ill inmates. The level of need demonstrated by this study requires a level of service provision that is quite beyond the capacity of current forensic psychiatry services, Department of Corrections Psychological Services or the prison nursing and medical officers. The elevated rates of common mental disorders argues for the use of improved psychiatric screening instruments, improved assessment and treatment capacities in the prison and an increased number of forensic psychiatric inpatient facilities to care for those psychotic inmates who are too unwell to be treated in the prison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]