How is CDC involved in monitoring mental illness?

How is CDC involved in monitoring mental illness?

CDC collects certain mental health data about the U.S. adult population in various ways, including:

• Population Surveys
• State-specific Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
• National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
• National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
• Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS)
• Health Care Surveys
• National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS)
• National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS)
• National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS)
• National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS).

On September 2, 2011, CDC released Mental Illness Surveillance Among Adults in the United States, an MMWR supplement that summarized current data from the above surveillance and information systems. The publication is the result of CDC's first agency-wide compilation of data from these systems that measure the prevalence and effect of mental illness in the U.S. adult population.

What are the report's conclusions?

The authors note that, currently, no surveillance efforts at the national or state level are directed toward documenting anxiety disorders. However, anxiety disorders are as common in the population as depression. Moreover, anxiety disorders have similar characteristics to depression in that they

• can impose as much impairment as depression,
• are also related to the stress response system of the body,
• have health impact similar to depression, and
• are often found to coexist with the same chronic medical conditions found in those who suffer from depression.

The authors stress the importance of initiating national-level anxiety disorder surveillance activities to help guide public health policy. They also call for anxiety disorder surveillance to be conducted at the state and local levels so that public health services addressing this condition can be designed, implemented, and evaluated. Mental illness surveillance by organizations such as CDC is a critically important part of disease prevention and control.

For more information, see the CDC Mental Illness Surveillance Website at http://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealthsurveillance/.