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Background: For some phenomena the mean of population distributions predicts the proportion of people exceeding a threshold value.Aims: To investigate whether in depression, too, the population mean predicts the number of individuals at the extreme end of the distribution.Method: We used data from the European Outcome in Depression International Network (ODIN) study from populations in Finland, Norway and the UK to create models that predicted the prevalence of depression based on the mean Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) score. The models were tested on data from Ireland and Spain.Results: Mean BDI score correlated well with the prevalence of depression determined by clinical interviews. A model based on the beta distribution best fitted the BDI distribution. Both models predicted the depression prevalence in Ireland and Spain fairly well.Conclusions: The mean of a continuous population distribution of mood predicts the prevalence of depression. Characteristics of both individuals and populations determine depression rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This is the first report on the epidemiology of depressive disorders from the European Outcome of Depression International Network (ODIN) study.Aims: To assess the prevalence of depressive disorders in randomly selected samples of the general population in five European countries.Method: The study was designed as a cross-sectional two-phase community study using the Beck Depression inventory during Phase 1, and the Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry during Phase 2.Results: An analysis of the combined sample (n=8.764) gave an overall prevalence of depressive disorders of 8.56% (95% CI 7.05-10.37). The figures were 10.05% (95% CI 7.80-12.85) for women and 6.61% (95% CI 4.92-8.83) for men. The centres fall into three categories: high prevalence (urban Ireland and urban UK), low prevalence (urban Spain) and medium prevalence (the remaining sites).Conclusions: Depressive disorder is a highly prevalent condition in Europe. The major finding is the wide difference in the prevalence of depressive disorders found across the study sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]