ABSTRACT
Clinical psychiatrists are not usually attracted by psychiatric epidemiology, as their way of thinking, like that of other clinicians, is mainly focused on the clinical description of cases, the making of a diagnosis and the prescription of treatment. Too much epidemiological research has failed to produce substantial clinical results, for lack of a real interest in the study of clinical phenomena and in closer collaboration between clinicians and epidemiologists. The role of the clinician in psychiatric epidemiology is of great importance for progress in this field, for a number of reasons. The participation of clinical psychiatrists in epidemiological studies of public health or administrative interest raises different kinds of problem, which cannot adequately be dealt with here. The training of more clinicians in psychiatric epidemiology is one area which calls for further development, but there is also a pressing need for clinicians with an epidemiological perspective to play their part in initiating research at various levels of inquiry.
