This article reviews and updates major research findings on depressive disorders and gender relationships in the United States and abroad. It also considers some of the World Health Organization's assessment instruments that may clarify the relationship between depression and gender and its cross-cultural ramifications. With psychology converging across national boundaries and with gender being a variable in psychological research both nationally and internationally, gender and its relationship to depressive states is emerging as a focal point of interest and concern.

Depression and gender: An international review.

• The Psychiatric Status Schedule (PSS) is a widely used interview that was designed to improve the research value of clinical judgments. Although it was developed with psychiatric patients, its authors hoped it could be used to evaluate nonpatients, a capability that would make it a much needed tool for epidemiologic research. The present study tests the internal consistency reliability of scales drawn from the PSS in both a general population sample (n. = 133) and a patient sample (n. = 100). Like the PSS's authors, we found a wide variety of clinically meaningful scales reliable for use with patients. In striking contrast, however, most of these proved unreliable in the general population sample. Speculative explanations are offered for the failure of most of the PSS scales in the general population sample and for the success of a few.

The psychiatric status schedule as a measure of dimensions of psychopathology in the general population.

7.8 7.9 Revision of rubrics and addition of new ones Elimination of combination categories; multiple coding Identical code numbers in ICD-8 and ICD-9 referring to different conditions Reassignment of rubrics and inclusion terms Personality disorders Revisions of nomenclature Supplementary classification of factors influencing health status and contact with health services Lay reporting Effective data and training activities 7.10 Comparability of data bases erected under different versions of ICD Research toward more satisfactory models of classification 8.1 Multiaxial classification 8.2 Classification of disabilities Preparation for ICD-10 Summary References Annexes

The ICD-9 classification of mental disorders. A review of its development and contents.

Les auteurs presentent une etude statistique et epidemiologique d'un echantillon representatif de la clientele d'un service de guidance infantile, selectionne sur une periode de 4 ans. — Les parametres utilises (sexe, âge, nationalite, domicile, niveau socio-professionnel, mode de venue, motif de consultation, milieu familial) permettent de degager des resultats dont les plus interessants semblent: a) l'importance de la categorie socio-professionnelle des parents, qui se traduit par des differences significatives dans les comparaisons en fonction du sexe des consultants, de leur mode de venue et du motif de consultation — b) La surrepresentation d'enfants delinquents dans les milieux familiaux desunis — c) la faible motivation des milieux modestes pour consulter le pedo-psychiatre — d) le role marginal joue par la distance comme facteur influencant la decision de consultation. — Les versants diagnostic et therapeutique ne sont pas pris en consideration.

Sartorius N

Papers

The epidemiological approach to psychiatric disorders.