The major analyses of the NCS-R data set during this past year focus on comparisons between adolescent and adult patterns of psychopathology, particularly mania, major depression and anxiety disorders. We published a paper that compares patterns of depressive symptoms and correlates in adults and youth that demonstrates similar symptomatic structure but greater complexity in the adults, as expected. The subtypes identified in these analyses suggest that both symptom patterns and severity of depressive symptoms are sources of heterogeneity in major depressive disorder. We have also shown that patterns of mania in adults and youth are remarkably similar. Public Health Impact: These findings have provided novel knowledge on comparability of the structure of major depressive disorder in adults and adolescents. The central importance of symptoms that are somatic in quality (such as changes in appetite, weight, sleep and fatigue) in discriminating depressive subtypes has major implications for our understanding of the biologic pathways, treatment and opportunities for prevention of the consequences of this major public health problem in American youth. Future Plans: Our efforts on the NCS-R as an independent project have been significantly reduced over the past year, since the analyses of the most relevant topics to our research programs have been completed. However, we plan to continue to work with these data from this rich nationally representative sample to conduct comparative analyses of symptom patterns, correlates and consequences of disorders shown in our parallel adolescent sample.
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