Summary

The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) series provides data on the prevalence of both treated and untreated psychiatric disorder in the English adult population (aged 16 and over. This survey is the third in a series and was conducted by the National Centre for Social Research in collaboration with the University of Leicester for the NHS Information Centre for health and social care.

The previous surveys were conducted in 1993 (16-64 year olds) and 2000 (16-74 year olds) by the Office for National Statistics, and covered England, Scotland and Wales.

Topics covered:

Common mental disorders; Posttraumatic stress disorder; Suicidal thoughts, attempts and self-harm; Psychosis; Antisocial and borderline personality disorders; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Eating disorder; Alcohol misuse and dependency; Drug use and dependency; Problem gambling; Psychiatric comorbidity

The survey used a robust stratified, multi-stage probability sample of households and assesses psychiatric disorder where possible to actual diagnostic criteria.

Key findings

Please note that the following revisions have been made 13.00pm on 27th January since original publication at 9:30am: in the 2nd bullet "attempted suicide in the year prior to interview" has been revised to “having ever attempted suicide”; in the 3rd bullet "or attempted suicide" has been deleted; in the fifth bullet "the rate rose from 20.5 per cent to 25.2 per cent" has been revised to "by about a fifth" and the sixth bullet "low income" has been revised to 'low adjusted household income".

• in 2007 nearly one person in four (23.0 per cent) in England had at least one psychiatric disorder and 7.2 per cent had two or more disorders
• in 2007 5.6 per cent of people aged 16 and over reported having ever attempted suicide but were not successful
• the proportion of women (aged 16-74) reporting suicidal thoughts in the previous year increased from 4.2 per cent in 2000 to 5.5 per cent in 2007
• people aged over 75 were included in the survey for the first time in 2007. In this age group, common mental disorders (CMD) were higher in women than men (12.2 per cent of women compared to 6.3 per cent of men)
• the largest increase in rate of CMD between 1993 and 2007 was observed in women aged 45-64, among whom the rate rose by about a fifth
• the survey demonstrated a strong association between the presence of a disorder and a low adjusted household income.