Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T03:20:07.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dimensions of neurosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Glyn Lewis
Glyn Lewis*
Affiliation:
Section of Epidemiology and General Practice, Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1 Address for correspondence: Dr Glyn Lewis, Section of Epidemiology and General Practice, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Factor analyses of the General Health Questionnaire have attempted to interpret the factors as measuring anxiety, depression and social functioning. Data from two large community surveys were used to conduct an unrotated principal components analysis of the 30-item General Health Questionnaire. A general factor, indicating overall severity of psychiatric disorder, accounted for around 30% of the variance. The next most important factor, accounting for about 8% of the variance, was bipolar with the positive (‘less than usual’) items of the General Health Questionnaire having positive coefficients and the negative (‘more than usual’) items having negative coefficients. It is suggested that the concepts of positive and negative mental health derive empirical support from the results and may prove to be a useful classification of dimensions of mental health in the community.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , November 1992 , pp. 1011 - 1018
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bradburn, N. M. (1969). The Structure of Psychological Well-Being. National Opinion Research Center Monographs in Social Research. Volume 15. Aldine: Chicago.Google Scholar
Carmines, E. G. & Zeller, R. A. (1979). Reliability and Validity Assessment. Sage: Beverley Hills.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coppen, A. & Metcalfe, M. (1965). Effect of a depressive illness on MPI scores. British Journal of Psychiatry 111, 236–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, P. T. & McCrae, R. R. (1980). Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being: happy and unhappy people. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 4, 668–678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, B. D., Blaxter, M., Buckle, A. L. J., Fenner, M. P., Golding, J. F., Gore, M., Huppert, F. A., Nickson, J., Roth, M., Stark, J., Wadsworth, M. E. J. & Whichelow, M. (1987). The Health and Lifestyle Survey. Health Promotion Research Trust: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Duncan-Jones, P., Grayson, D. A. & Moran, P. A. P. (1986). The utility of latent trait models in psychiatric epidemiology. Psychological Medicine 16, 391–405.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eysenck, H. J. & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1964). Manual of the Eysenck Personality Inventory. University of London Press: London.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1972). The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Goldberg, P. & Hillier, V. F. (1979). A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine 9, 139–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, D. & Williams, P. (1988). The User's Guide to the General Health Questionnaire. NFER-Nelson: Windsor.Google Scholar
Goodchild, M. E. & Duncan-Jones, P. (1985). Chronicity and the General Health Questionnaire. British Journal of Psychiatry 146, 55–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harding, T. W., De Arango, M. V., Baltazar, J., Climent, C. E., Ibrahim, H. H. A., Ignacio, L. L., Murthy, R. S. & Wig, N. N. (1980). Mental disorders and primary health care: a study of their frequency and diagnosis in four developing countries. Psychological Medicine 10, 231–241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huppert, F. A., Walters, D. E., Day, N. E. & Elliot, B. J. (1989). The factor structure of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30): a reliability study on 6317 community residents. British Journal of Psychiatry 155, 178–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurry, J., Sturt, , Bebbington, P. & Tennant, C. (1983). Sociodemographic associations with social disablement in a community sample. Psychological Medicine 18, 113–121.Google Scholar
Jenkins, R. (1985). Sex Differences in Minor Psychiatric Disorder. Psychological Medicine Monograph Supplement 7. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Jenkins, R., Smeeton, N. & Shepherd, M. (1988). Classification of Mental Illness in Primary Care. Psychological Medicine Monograph Supplement 12. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google ScholarPubMed
Lewis, G. (1991). Observer bias in the assessment of anxiety and depression. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 26, 265–272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, G. & Araya, R. A. (1993). Is the General Health Questionnaire a Culturally biased measure of psychiatric disorder? British Journal of Psychiatry (submitted).Google Scholar
Moorey, S., Greer, S., Watson, M., Gorman, C., Rowden, L., Tunmore, R., Robertson, B. & Bliss, J. (1991). The factor structure and factor stability of the hospital anxiety and depression scale. British Journal of Psychiatry 158, 255–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement 1, 385–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SAS Institute Inc. (1985). SAS User's Guide: Basics. Version 5. SAS Institute Inc: Cary, NC.Google Scholar
Snaith, R. P. (1987). The concepts of mild depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 150, 387–393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stavrakaki, C. & Vargo, B. (1986). The relationship of anxiety and depression. A review of the literature. British Journal of Psychiatry 149, 7–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tarnopolsky, A. & Morton-Williams, J. (1980). Aircraft Noise and Psychiatric Disorders. Social and Community Planning Research: London.Google Scholar
Tyrer, P. (1989). The Classification of Neurosis. John Wiley: Chichester.Google Scholar
Warr, P. (1987). Work, Unemployment and Mental Health. University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
Watson, D. & Tellegen, A. (1985). Toward a consensual structure of mood. Psychological Bulletin 98, 219–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zigmond, A. S. & Snaith, R. P. (1983). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 67, 361–370.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed