Psychiatric epidemiology in Canada and the CCHS study.

This article provides an overview of papers presented at the 2004 Canadian Academy of Psychiatric Epidemiology meeting. Canada has been a major player in the development of diagnostic criteria, methodology and structured interviews to determine the prevalence of treated and untreated mental disorders. However, most studies in Canadian psychiatric epidemiology were conducted in a specific region. As a consequence, researchers do not have any national estimates of the prevalence of major psychiatric conditions in the country. The Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.2. remedies this, being a study of the entire country. At the meeting, representatives from Statistics Canada outlined the design of the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.2., whose major focus was on factors that predisposed people to or protected them from psychological problems.