ABSTRACT
This chapter provides earlier taxonomic work on anxiety and depression with the theme of primary care. The terms ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ encompass a very broad range of symptoms which tend to co-vary together. The similarity in taxonomic structures across sectors of care is more impressive than the differences. The chapter aims to develop a latent class model which efficiently explains the observed associations among symptoms, and differences in these associations across health-care sectors. The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Programme is a series of epidemiologic surveys conducted by university-based researchers in several community mental health centre catchment-area populations. The concept of a core group of symptoms might facilitate communication between primary-care doctors and psychiatric specialists, much as the concept of ‘core’ symptoms of schizophrenia has facilitated communication about schizophrenia in different cultures. Training courses in primary health care could benefit by paying greater attention to the difficulties in diagnosing depression in the absence of psychomotor retardation.
