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Epidemiology in Community Psychiatry

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Textbook of Community Psychiatry

Abstract

Psychiatric epidemiology has played a central role in shaping the development of psychiatric care in the community over a period of 150 years. Signal developments in the evolution of community psychiatry emerged in tandem with psychiatric epidemiology in the mid-nineteenth century and again in the mid-twentieth century (Susser et al, Int J Epidemiol 39(6):1417–1425, 2010). In the current era, this close relationship continues, especially in the effort to “close the mental health gap,” that is, give the same priority to mental as to other health conditions in national as well as global health initiatives. In this chapter, we offer an introduction to two central topics in psychiatric epidemiology: (1) observational studies of incidence and prevalence and (2) observational studies of causes. These concepts are then exemplified in a case study from South Africa, which examines the mental health impacts of the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Soweto, a major urban township located southwest of Johannesburg.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States

    Andrew Wooyoung Kim

  2. Departments of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Ezra Susser

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  1. Andrew Wooyoung Kim
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  2. Ezra Susser
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Correspondence to Ezra Susser .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Wesley E. Sowers

  2. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, New York University Grossman School of Medicine | NYU Langone Health, New York, NY, USA

    Hunter L. McQuistion

  3. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA

    Jules M. Ranz

  4. Professor Emerita of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Jacqueline Maus Feldman

  5. Vice Chair/Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, Ohio, OH, USA

    Patrick S. Runnels

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Kim, A.W., Susser, E. (2022). Epidemiology in Community Psychiatry. In: Sowers, W.E., McQuistion, H.L., Ranz, J.M., Feldman, J.M., Runnels, P.S. (eds) Textbook of Community Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10239-4_28

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