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Background: Mood and anxiety disorders are heterogeneous conditions with variable course. Knowledge on latent classes and transitions between these classes over time based on longitudinal disorder status information provides insight into clustering of meaningful groups with different disease prognosis., Methods: Data of all four waves of the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2 were used, a representative population-based study of adults (mean duration between two successive waves = 3 years; N at T0 = 6646; T1 = 5303; T2 = 4618; T3 = 4007; this results in a total number of data points: 20 574). Presence of eight mood and anxiety DSM-IV disorders was assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Latent class analysis and latent Markov modelling were used., Results: The best fitting model identified four classes: a healthy class (prevalence: 94.1%), depressed-worried class (3.6%; moderate-to-high proportions of mood disorders and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)), fear class (1.8%; moderate-to-high proportions of panic and phobia disorders) and high comorbidity class (0.6%). In longitudinal analyses over a three-year period, the minority of those in the depressed-worried and high comorbidity class persisted in their class over time (36.5% and 38.4%, respectively), whereas the majority in the fear class did (67.3%). Suggestive of recovery is switching to the healthy class, this was 39.7% in the depressed-worried class, 12.5% in the fear class and 7.0% in the high comorbidity class., Conclusions: People with panic or phobia disorders have a considerably more persistent and chronic disease course than those with depressive disorders including GAD. Consequently, they could especially benefit from longer-term monitoring and disease management.

Objectives: The Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) is frequently used as a screener for mood and anxiety disorders. However, few population-based studies have validated it against a diagnostic instrument assessing disorders following current diagnostic criteria., Methods: Within the third Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS-3), a representative population-based study of adults (N = 6194; age: 18-75 years), the MHI-5 was used to measure general mental ill-health in the past month. Presence of mood (major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, or bipolar disorder) and anxiety disorders (panic disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia, or generalized anxiety disorder) in the past month was assessed with a slightly modified version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 3.0 per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders-5., Results: The MHI-5 was good to excellent at distinguishing people with and without a mood disorder, an anxiety disorder, and any mood or anxiety disorder. The cut-off value associated with the highest sensitivity and highest specificity for mood disorder was ≤68, and ≤76 for an anxiety disorder or any mood or anxiety disorder., Conclusions: The MHI-5 can identify individuals at high risk of a current mood or anxiety disorder in the general population when diagnostic interviews are too time consuming., (© 2024 The Author(s). International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)