The Stirling County Study spans 40 years and draws on a database of about 4010 adults selected sequentially to represent an area in Atlantic Canada in 1952, 1970, and 1992. The longitudinal design involves repeated cross-sectional surveys combined with cohort follow-up, and the data consist in interviews carried out with subjects and their general physicians. The procedures for psychiatric diagnosis have been consistently applied, are structurally compatible with modern approaches, and were recently updated for changes in the common words used for disturbances of mood. In the final wave of data gathering, completed in 1996, portions of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule were used to facilitate comparison with other studies; the Modified Mini-Mental Status Examination was administered to older subjects so that cognitive dysfunction could be estimated; and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R was employed for a validity assessment. The purpose of this proposal is to request funds to complete data-processing and to conduct primary analysis and reporting. Based on the 40-year perspective, reports have recently been published on time-trends in the prevalence and incidence of depression, on comparison of lay-administered and clinician- administered interviews, and on the evolution of methods for longitudinal research. Time-trends constitute the framework for future analysis, and the topics to be addressed include: prevalence and incidence of anxiety and comorbidity with depression; clinical antecedents and subsequent course of depression and anxiety, their associations with smoking; with mortality; with socioeconomic status; with changes in the role of women; with health service use; and with the perceptions of psychiatric disorders by general physicians. Three young investigators will use data from the study to study psychiatric precursors of cognitive dysfunction, statistical procedures for handling multiple-source data, and changing practices regarding psychotropic medication. The first half of the study indicated that many types of psychiatric disorders reduce the quality and quantity of life. This research concerns whether such disorders are increasing in number or changing in clinical features.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01MH039576-17A1
Application #
6332220
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SNEM-2 (01))
Program Officer
Colpe, Lisa J
Project Start
1984-09-30
Project End
2004-05-31
Budget Start
2001-06-14
Budget End
2002-05-31
Support Year
17
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$259,500
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts General Hospital
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02199
Colman, Ian; Kingsbury, Mila; Sucha, Ewa et al. (2018) Depressive and anxious symptoms and 20-year mortality: Evidence from the Stirling County study. Depress Anxiety 35:638-647
Gilman, Stephen E; Sucha, Ewa; Kingsbury, Mila et al. (2017) Depression and mortality in a longitudinal study: 1952-2011. CMAJ 189:E1304-E1310
Murphy, Jane M; Gilman, Stephen E; Lesage, Alain et al. (2010) Time trends in mortality associated with depression: findings from the Stirling County study. Can J Psychiatry 55:776-83
Murphy, J M; Leighton, A H (2009) Anxiety: its role in the history of psychiatric epidemiology. Psychol Med 39:1055-64
Murphy, J M; Horton, N J; Burke Jr, J D et al. (2009) Obesity and weight gain in relation to depression: findings from the Stirling County Study. Int J Obes (Lond) 33:335-41
Murphy, Jane M; Burke Jr, Jack D; Monson, Richard R et al. (2008) Mortality associated with depression: a forty-year perspective from the Stirling County Study. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 43:594-601
Litman, Heather J; Horton, Nicholas J; Murphy, Jane M et al. (2006) Marginal regression models with a time to event outcome and discrete multiple source predictors. Lifetime Data Anal 12:249-65
Murphy, J M; Horton, N J; Laird, N M et al. (2004) Anxiety and depression: a 40-year perspective on relationships regarding prevalence, distribution, and comorbidity. Acta Psychiatr Scand 109:355-75
Bassuk, Shari S; Murphy, Jane M (2003) Characteristics of the Modified Mini-Mental State Exam among elderly persons. J Clin Epidemiol 56:622-8
Murphy, Jane M; Horton, Nicholas J; Monson, Richard R et al. (2003) Cigarette smoking in relation to depression: historical trends from the Stirling County Study. Am J Psychiatry 160:1663-9

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