National Comorbidity Survey

National Comorbidity Survey (NSC) was the first nationally representative mental health survey in the U.S. to use a fully structured research diagnostic interview to assess the prevalences and correlates of DSM-III-R disorders. The baseline study was carried out under the auspices of the Harvard Medical school between late 1990 and the spring of 1992.

Respondents were reinterviewed in 2001-02 (NCS-2) to study patterns and predictors of the course of mental health disorders and to evaluate the effects of primary mental disorders in predicting the onset and course of secondary substance disorders. At the same time an NCS Replication survey (NCS-R) was carried out in a new national sample of 10,000 respondents in order to study trends in a wide range of variables assessed in the baseline NCS and to obtain more information about a number of topics. A survey of 10,000 adolescents (NCS-A) was also carried out at this so as to produce  nationally representative data on the prevalences and correlates of mental disorders among the young

The NCS-R and NCS-A, finally, are being replicated in a number of countries around the world. Centralized cross-national analysis of these surveys is being carried out by the NCS data analysis team under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health Survey Initiative.

A publically accessible file system containing all the documents from the NCS Program is available and can be accessed over the Internet.

List of papers published by the National Comorbidity Survey