Some thoughts about the epidemiology and etiology of mental disorders
To examine the essence of the first part of the subject, it is appropriate to say what this epidemiology is - a science of the spread of diseases that studies their frequency through many patient-related factors. This science has been created in the study of infectious diseases but has an important place in psychiatry to study the factors of etiology and the course of mental illness. it aims to determine their incidence for a given period, their share in the overall morbidity rate of newbased persons for a given period in a particular population. In practice, there is a great deal of connection between clinical psychology and psychiatry.
Each psychiatric team involves a clinical psychologist who, with his competence in the field of personality, cognitive, social and group psychology, contributes not only to interviewing, test research, but also to psychotherapy. In research, these three areas of science are in continuous exchange. Suffice is the fact that the established basic theoretical directions in psychiatry are also directions in psychology. Based on these, each psychiatric team offers a specific case formulation (diagnosis). In connection with the development of psychological methods, the possibilities of epidemiological research in psychiatry also change. Contemporary targeting measures for epidemiological studies can be defined as follows: - to determine the morbidity of mental disorders in the population; - to study the risk factors for the occurrence of mental illness as well as wider health-psychological problems.
Epidemiological studies are based on three approaches: Descriptive Epidemiology aims to determine the incidence of a disorder in a representative sample of the general population at a given time, as well as variations of that disorder in different subjects, regions and time periods . Research of this type enables the generation of new hypotheses about the causes that favor the onset of mental illness; analytical - analytical epidemiology aims to reveal the risk factors for a mental disorder, to determine the degree of their significance and to check the hypotheses arising from the descriptive epidemiology. Risk factors are those conditions that increase the likelihood of the onset and development of a mental illness. The risk value of a particular factor is revealed by the degree of statistical significance of its association with a particular disorder. Risk factors can be of a different kind - unfavorable life events, physiologically and mentally busy periods of life, unfavorable heredity,