Recall of Psychiatric History in Cross-sectional Surveys: Implications for Epidemiologic Research
Abstract
Data from a variety of sources suggest the possibility of significant errors in lifetime recall of psychiatric illness. Remote episodes of illness may often be forgotten, especially among patients with milder or less recurrent illness or those who received no treatment. These errors in recall may lead to significant underestimation of true lifetime prevalence and may produce the appearance of large temporal increases in risk in the absence of any true change. When assessing lifetime history, cross-sectional surveys may differentially underestimate prevalence in the elderly and in those with less severe or recurrent illness. While lifetime risk of depression and other psychiatric disorders may not be increasing as rapidly as suggested by cross-sectional surveys, the overall impact of such disorders over the life span may be significantly greater than previous community surveys have indicated.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Retrospective recall is associated with decreased reliability due to memory deterioration, hindsight and recall bias, and a tendency to overemphasize past events or underestimate past morbidity.
“Retrospective recall is associated with decreased reliability as a result of memory deterioration, hindsight and recall bias, and a tendency to overemphasize past events, which provide an explanation for current problems (Hardt and Rutter, 2004) or underestimate past morbidity (Simon and VonKorff, 1995).”
From Factors associated with recovery from anorexia nervosa (2013) · cites this paper as Simon and VonKorff, 1995
Retrospective recall entails sources of invalidity that limit inference about the developmental origins of adults with disorder.
“Retrospective recall entails sources of invalidity that limit inference about the developmental origins of adults with disorder(15-17).”
From Is adult ADHD a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder? Evidence from a four-decade longitudinal cohort study (2015) · cites this paper as [17]
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593 · Cited by 20,391 · see citing works
“Retrospective age-of-onset reports were obtained in the WMH-CIDI using a series of questions designed to avoid the implausible response patterns obtained when using the standard CIDI age-of-onset question.(10) The sequence began with a question designed to emphasize the importance of accurate responses: “Can you remem…”
MethodAge of onset of mental disorders: a review of recent literature
Kessler, R. C., Amminger, G. P., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Lee, S., & ??st??n, T. B. (2007) · Current Opinion in Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/yco.0b013e32816ebc8c · Cited by 3,457 · see citing works
Ferrari, A. J., Charlson, F. J., Norman, R. E., Patten, S. B., Freedman, G., Murray, C. J. L., Vos, T., & Whiteford, H. A. (2013) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001547 · Cited by 3,115 · see citing works
“Lifetime estimates were excluded as recall bias invalidates them as credible measures of disease burden [21–24].”
Background(2007) · PubMed Central · Cited by 2,521 · see citing works
Green, J. G., McLaughlin, K. A., Berglund, P. A., Gruber, M. J., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Kessler, R. C. (2010) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.186 · Cited by 2,323 · see citing works
Physical and mental health effects of intimate partner violence for men and women
Coker, A. L., Davis, K. E., Arias, I., Desai, S., Sanderson, M., Brandt, H. M., & Smith, P. H. (2002) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/s0749-3797(02)00514-7 · Cited by 2,258 · see citing works
Kim-Cohen, J., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Harrington, H., Milne, B. J., & Poulton, R. (2003) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.60.7.709 · Cited by 2,025 · see citing works
“The accuracy of retrospective reports is often suspect,(25) especially with regard to the timing of the age of onset.(26,27) Although improvements in questionnaire design can minimize retrospective errors and biases, prospective longitudinal data are preferred for dating and charting developmental histories.”
BackgroundEpidemiology of women and depression
Kessler, R. (2003) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/s0165-0327(02)00426-3 · Cited by 2,006 · see citing works
Lai, M.-C., Kassee, C., Besney, R., Bonato, S., Hull, L., Mandy, W., Szatmari, P., & Ameis, S. H. (2019) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(19)30289-5 · Cited by 1,892 · see citing works
Charlson, F. J., Ferrari, A. J., Santomauro, D. F., Diminic, S., Stockings, E., Scott, J. G., McGrath, J. J., & Whiteford, H. A. (2018) · Schizophrenia Bulletin · doi:10.1093/schbul/sby058 · Cited by 1,647 · see citing works
A systematic review and meta-regression of the prevalence and incidence of perinatal depression
Woody, C. A., Ferrari, A. J., Siskind, D. J., Whiteford, H. A., & Harris, M. G. (2017) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2017.05.003 · Cited by 1,577 · see citing works
“Estimates of lifetime prevalence were not included, as they are more susceptible to recall bias (Simon and VonKorff, 1995).”
BackgroundFerrari, A. J., Somerville, A. J., Baxter, A. J., Norman, R., Patten, S. B., Vos, T., & Whiteford, H. A. (2013) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291712001511 · Cited by 1,230 · see citing works
“Lifetime estimates were excluded, as these are more prone to recall bias (Simon & VonKorff, 1995 ; Kruijshaar et al. 2005; Moffitt et al. 2010 ; Susser & Shrout, 2010).”
BackgroundAndrade, L., Caraveo‐anduaga, J. J., Berglund, P., Bijl, R. V., Graaf, R. D., Vollebergh, W., Dragomirecka, E., Kohn, R., Keller, M., Kessler, R. C., et al. (2003) · International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1002/mpr.138 · Cited by 1,068 · see citing works
Epidemiology of Temporomandibular Disorders: Implications for the Investigation of Etiologic Factors
LeResche, L. (1997) · Critical Reviews in Oral Biology & Medicine · doi:10.1177/10454411970080030401 · Cited by 1,073 · see citing works
DSM-IV pathological gambling in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication
Kessler, R. C., Hwang, I., LaBrie, R., Petukhova, M., Sampson, N. A., Winters, K. C., & Shaffer, H. J. (2008) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291708002900 · Cited by 928 · see citing works
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Taylor, A., Kokaua, J., Milne, B. J., Polanczyk, G., & Poulton, R. (2010) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291709991036 · Cited by 938 · see citing works
“The experience of at least one episode of DSM-defined disorder during a lifetime may be far more common in the population than previously thought.”
BackgroundInfluentialDegenhardt, L., Chiu, W.-T., Sampson, N., Kessler, R. C., Anthony, J. C., Angermeyer, M., Bruffaerts, R., de Girolamo, G., Gureje, O., Huang, Y., et al. (2008) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050141 · Cited by 796 · see citing works
“Retrospective AOO reports were based on a question series designed to avoid the implausible response patterns obtained in using the standard Composite International Diagnostic Interview [CIDI] AOO question [32].”
Strategy for Investigating Interactions Between Measured Genes and Measured Environments
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., & Rutter, M. (2005) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.5.473 · Cited by 784 · see citing works
“The dangers of retrospective data are known: normal forgetting, revisionist recall, bias by respondents’ knowledge of subsequent disease outcome, bias from patients’ cognitive dysfunction or low mood, and forward telescoping of recalled events.(76,77) A specific difficulty for retrospective recall in GxE studies is ev…”
BackgroundDepression as a disease of modernity: explanations for increasing prevalence
Hidaka, B. H. (2012) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2011.12.036 · Cited by 769 · see citing works
“People often exhibit poor recall and under-report past depressive episodes in community samples (Bromet et al., 1986), especially milder episodes for which no treatment was received (Simon and VonKorff, 1995; Wells and Horwood, 2004).”
BackgroundThe National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS‐R): background and aims
Kessler, R. C., & Merikangas, K. R. (2004) · International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1002/mpr.166 · Cited by 718 · see citing works
Moffitt, T. E., Harrington, H., Caspi, A., Kim-Cohen, J., Goldberg, D., Gregory, A. M., & Poulton, R. (2007) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.64.6.651 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
“This implausible ratio from retrospective surveys could be explained if currently healthy respondents underreport past disorder in their lifetimes.(22) Regarding the research questions of this article, retrospective surveys may have markedly underestimated the proportion of adults in the population who experience both…”
BackgroundAdult mental health disorders and their age at onset
Jones, P. B. (2013) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.112.119164 · Cited by 701 · see citing works
Specifying race-ethnic differences in risk for psychiatric disorder in a USA national sample
BRESLAU, J., AGUILAR-GAXIOLA, S., KENDLER, K. S., SU, M., WILLIAMS, D., & KESSLER, R. C. (2006) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291705006161 · Cited by 673 · see citing works
Moffitt, T. E., Houts, R., Asherson, P., Belsky, D. W., Corcoran, D. L., Hammerle, M., Harrington, H., Hogan, S., Meier, M. H., Polanczyk, G. V., et al. (2015) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2015.14101266 · Cited by 618 · see citing works
The prevalence and burden of bipolar disorder: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013
Ferrari, A. J., Stockings, E., Khoo, J., Erskine, H. E., Degenhardt, L., Vos, T., & Whiteford, H. A. (2016) · Bipolar Disorders · doi:10.1111/bdi.12423 · Cited by 583 · see citing works
The prevalence and characteristics of migraine in a population-based cohort
Launer, L. J., Terwindt, G. M., & Ferrari, M. D. (1999) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.53.3.537 · Cited by 587 · see citing works
Roza, S. J., Hofstra, M. B., van der Ende, J., & Verhulst, F. C. (2003) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.160.12.2116 · Cited by 540 · see citing works
“People tend to underestimate past morbidity, which may lead to significant underestimation of the lifetime prevalences reported (24).”
BackgroundHealth of UK servicemen who served in Persian Gulf War
Unwin, C., Blatchley, N., Coker, W. J., Ferry, S., Hotopf, M. H., Hull, L., Ismail, K., Palmer, I. P., David, A. S., & Wessely, S. C. (1999) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(98)11338-7 · Cited by 523 · see citing works
Development of lifetime comorbidity in the World Health Organization world mental health surveys
Kessler, R. C., Ormel, J., Petukhova, M., McLaughlin, K. A., Green, J. G., Russo, L. J., Stein, D. J., Zaslavsky, A. M., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., et al. (2011) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.180 · Cited by 508 · see citing works
Childhood IQ and Adult Mental Disorders: A Test of the Cognitive Reserve Hypothesis
Koenen, K. C., Moffitt, T. E., Roberts, A. L., Martin, L. T., Kubzansky, L., Harrington, H., Poulton, R., & Caspi, A. (2009) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.08030343 · Cited by 512 · see citing works
“However, with this prospective approach, disorders are not undercounted because of participants’ failure to recall criterion symptoms from years past, as occurs in retrospective surveys (28).”
Uher, R., & McGuffin, P. (2007) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/sj.mp.4002067 · Cited by 507 · see citing works
Eaton, W. W. (1997) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1997.01830230023003 · Cited by 489 · see citing works
Kessler, R. C., Wittchen, H., Abelson, J. M., Mcgonagle, K., Schwarz, N., Kendler, K. S., Knäuper, B., & Zhao, S. (1998) · International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1002/mpr.33 · Cited by 483 · see citing works
Kessler, R. C., Merikangas, K. R., & Wang, P. S. (2007) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091444 · Cited by 468 · see citing works
Research Review: DSM‐V conduct disorder: research needs for an evidence base
Moffitt, T. E., order, A. I. A., Arseneault, L., Jaffee, S. R., Kim‐Cohen, J., Koenen, K. C., Odgers, C. L., Slutske, W. S., & Viding, E. M. (2007) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01823.x · Cited by 442 · see citing works
“A clinician may lack access to information about an adolescent patient’s symptom history; credible reporters about the adolescents’ childhood behavior may not be available, and even if reporters are at hand, retrospective reports are famously subject to memory failure (Simon & VonKorff, 1995).”
BackgroundKESSLER, R. C., STANG, P., WITTCHEN, H.-U., STEIN, M., & WALTERS, E. E. (1999) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291799008375 · Cited by 434 · see citing works
“…implausible associations between age at interview and reported age of onset found in surveys that use the standard CIDI age of onset question (Simon & VonKorff, 1995) does not exist in the NCS (Knauper et al. 1999), indirectly arguing for an improvement in validity based on the use of the…”
BackgroundThe Age of Onset of Anxiety Disorders: A Meta-analysis
Lijster, J. M. D., Dierckx, B., Utens, E. M. W. J., Verhulst, F. C., Zieldorff, C., Dieleman, G. C., & Legerstee, J. S. (2017) · The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/0706743716640757 · Cited by 426 · see citing works
Cochran, S. D., & Mays, V. M. (2000) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.90.4.573 · Cited by 407 · see citing works
“Previous studies have shown that severe psychiatric symptoms and those occurring within the past 5 years are more likely to be recalled during interviews.(32) Therefore, if suicide attempts among gay men are clustered in adolescence and young adulthood, older men may not recall or interpret early self-destructive beha…”
ResultMoffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., & Rutter, M. (2006) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00002.x · Cited by 389 · see citing works
Scott, K. M. (2011) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.77 · Cited by 361 · see citing works
“Bias also exists regarding recall of the age at onset of mental disorders.(26) The WMH Surveys revised the method of asking about age at onset to reduce this bias, but some bias probably remains.”
MethodTreatment of suicidal people around the world
Bruffaerts, R., Demyttenaere, K., Hwang, I., Chiu, W.-T., Sampson, N., Kessler, R. C., Alonso, J., Borges, G., de Girolamo, G., de Graaf, R., et al. (2011) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.110.084129 · Cited by 338 · see citing works
Kessler, R. C., Stang, P., Wittchen, H., Üstün, T. B., Roy-Burne, P. P., & Walters, E. (1998) · The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.55.9.801 · Cited by 357 · see citing works
Ferrari, A. J., Charlson, F. J., Norman, R. E., Flaxman, A. D., Patten, S. B., Vos, T., & Whiteford, H. A. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069637 · Cited by 330 · see citing works
“Lifetime estimates were excluded as they are most susceptible to recall bias [37–40].”
BackgroundMOFFITT, T. E., CASPI, A., HARRINGTON, H., MILNE, B. J., MELCHIOR, M., GOLDBERG, D., & POULTON, R. (2007) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291706009640 · Cited by 326 · see citing works
Rong, Y., Yang, C.-J., Jin, Y., & Wang, Y. (2021) · Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2021.101759 · Cited by 316 · see citing works
McLaughlin, K. A., Breslau, J. A., Green, J. G., Lakoma, M. D., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Kessler, R. C. (2011) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.06.011 · Cited by 305 · see citing works
Sex differences in recent first-onset depression in an epidemiological sample of adolescents
Breslau, J. A., Gilman, S. E., Stein, B. D., Ruder, T., Gmelin, T. A., & Miller, E. P. (2017) · Translational Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/tp.2017.105 · Cited by 309 · see citing works
Ormel, J., Raven, D., van Oort, F., Hartman, C. A., Reijneveld, S. A., Veenstra, R., Vollebergh, W. A. M., Buitelaar, J., Verhulst, F. C., & Oldehinkel, A. J. (2015) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291714001469 · Cited by 276 · see citing works
Andrade, L. H., Berglund, P. A., Bijl, R. C., Walters, E. E., Offord, D. R., & Üstün, T. B. (2000) · Europe PMC (PubMed Central) · Cited by 288 · see citing works
Suicide Attempts Among Gay and Bisexual Men: Lifetime Prevalence and Antecedents
Paul, J. P., Catania, J. A., Pollack, L. M., Moskowitz, J. T., Canchola, J. A., Mills, T., Binson, D., & Stall, R. D. (2002) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.92.8.1338 · Cited by 284 · see citing works
Himle, J. A., Baser, R. E., Taylor, R. J., Campbell, R. D., & Jackson, J. S. (2009) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.01.002 · Cited by 278 · see citing works
“The age of disorder onset was determined using a series of questions designed to enhance respondent recall (KnÄuper, Cannell, Schwarz, Bruce, & Kessler, 1999; Simon & VonKorff, 1995).”
Kessler, R. C., Avenevoli, S., McLaughlin, K. A., Green, J. G., Lakoma, M. D., Petukhova, M. V., Pine, D. S., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Merikangas, K. R. (2012) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291712000025 · Cited by 280 · see citing works
Benjet, C. L., Borges, G. L. G., & Medina‐Mora, M. E. (2010) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2010.01.004 · Cited by 261 · see citing works
“The WMH-CIDI assessed age-of-onset of disorders retrospectively using a series of questions designed to improve accuracy of retrospect reports and avoid implausible response patterns (Simon and VonKorff, 1995; Kessler et al., 2005).”
MethodScott, K. M., Wells, J. E., Angermeyer, M., Brugha, T. S., Bromet, E. J., Demyttenaere, K., de Girolamo, G., Gureje, O., Haro, J. M., Jin, R., et al. (2009) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291709991942 · Cited by 257 · see citing works
Juvenile Mental Health Histories of Adults With Anxiety Disorders
Gregory, A. M., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Koenen, K. C., Eley, T. C., & Poulton, R. (2007) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.2007.164.2.301 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
McEvoy, P. M., Grove, R., & Slade, T. (2011) · Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.3109/00048674.2011.624083 · Cited by 229 · see citing works
Erskine, H., Ferrari, A., Nelson, P., Polanczyk, G., Flaxman, A., Vos, T., Whiteford, H., & Scott, J. (2013) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines · doi:10.1111/jcpp.12144 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
More treatment but no less depression: The treatment-prevalence paradox
Ormel, J., Hollon, S. D., Kessler, R. C., Cuijpers, P., & Monroe, S. M. (2022) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102111 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
The global burden of conduct disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in 2010
Erskine, H. E., Ferrari, A. J., Polanczyk, G. V., Moffitt, T. E., Murray, C. J. L., Vos, T., Whiteford, H. A., & Scott, J. G. (2014) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.12186 · Cited by 207 · see citing works
Alegria, M. M., Sribney, W. M., Woo, M., Torres, M., & Guarnaccia, P. J. (2007) · Research in Human Development · doi:10.1080/15427600701480980 · Cited by 195 · see citing works
“It has been proposed that the cohort effect does not in fact exist (Giuffra & Risch, 1994; Simon & VonKorff, 1992, 1995).”
BackgroundRisk for Psychiatric Disorder Among Immigrants and Their US-Born Descendants
Breslau, J. A., Aguilar‐Gaxiola, S., Borges, G. L. G., Kendler, K. S., Su, M., & Kessler, R. C. (2007) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/01.nmd.0000243779.35541.c6 · Cited by 190 · see citing works
“Retrospective age of onset reports were obtained in the WMH-CIDI using a question series designed to avoid the implausible response patterns obtained in using the standard CIDI age of onset question (Simon and VonKorff, 1995).”
MethodIncidence and Recurrence of Late-Life Depression
Luijendijk, H. J., van den Berg, J. F., Dekker, M. J. H. J., van Tuijl, H. R., Otte, W., Smit, F., Albert Hofman, D., Stricker, B. H. C., & Tiemeier, H. W. (2008) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.65.12.1394 · Cited by 192 · see citing works
Moffitt, T. E. (2005) · Advances in genetics · doi:10.1016/s0065-2660(05)55003-x · Cited by 195 · see citing works
Das-Munshi, J., Stewart, R., Ismail, K., Bebbington, P. E., Jenkins, R., & Prince, M. J. (2007) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/psy.0b013e3180cc3062 · Cited by 183 · see citing works
“However, epidemiological tools that inquire about lifetime diagnoses of depression may be subject to recall biases (42,43), and so this would not have necessarily clarified the issue in our study, had it been asked.”
BackgroundTegethoff, M., Belardi, A., Stalujanis, E., & Meinlschmidt, G. (2015) · Journal of Pain · doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2015.06.009 · Cited by 187 · see citing works
Micai, M., Fatta, L. M., Gila, L., Caruso, A., Salvitti, T., Fulceri, F., Ciaramella, A., D’Amico, R., Giovane, C. D., Bertelli, M. O., et al. (2023) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105436 · Cited by 211 · see citing works
“A favorable aspect was that most of the studies assessed CCs at a precise timepoint of people life which preserves from recall biases (Simon and VonKorff, 1995), instead of registering a lifetime prevalence.”
BackgroundROBERTS, R. E., Roberts, C. R., & Xing, Y. (2007) · Drug and Alcohol Dependence · doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2006.12.010 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
“However, we believe estimating the timing of comorbid disorders using lifetime retrospective recall is problematic methodologically (see Simon and VonKorff, 1995;Kandel et al., 1999) and therefore chose not to attempt such estimates (see also Wells and Horwood, 2004;Fergusson et al., 2000).”
BackgroundRichter, D., Wall, A., Bruen, A. J., & Whittington, R. (2019) · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/acps.13083 · Cited by 187 · see citing works
“However, as later re-analyses have shown, the studies were compromised by recall bias (8, 9).”
Understanding Disability in Mental and General Medical Conditions
Druss, B. G., Marcus, S. C., Rosenheck, R. A., Olfson, M., Tanielian, T., & Pincus, H. A. (2000) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.157.9.1485 · Cited by 172 · see citing works
Rueter, M. A., Scaramella, L., Wallace, L. E., & Conger, R. D. (1999) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.56.8.726 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
“Unfortunately, reports linking prodromal symptoms to the onset of anxiety or depressivedisorders relyentirelyoneitheronetime follow-up studies that cannot describe symptom course or retrospective recall, which is often unreliable.(8) Likewise, heavy reliance on cross-sectional or one-time follow-up designs has limited…”
BackgroundDepression in later life: three etiologically different subgroups
van den Berg, M. D., Oldehinkel, A. J., Bouhuys, A. L., Brilman, E. I., Beekman, A. T. F., & Ormel, J. (2001) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/s0165-0327(00)00263-9 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
Keller, T. E., Salazar, A. M., & Courtney, M. E. (2010) · Children and Youth Services Review · doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2009.12.010 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Stability of Somatization Disorder and Somatization Symptoms Among Primary Care Patients
Simon, G. E., & Gureje, O. (1999) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.56.1.90 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
“Our findings regarding recall of lifetime somatization symptoms are consistent with findings for other psychiatric disorders.(11) Several studies have examined recall of anxiety and depressive symptoms during periods of 6 months to 5 years.”
ResultSelf-citationForgetting, Fabricating, and Telescoping
BARSKY, A. J. (2002) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/archinte.162.9.981 · Cited by 159 · see citing works
Joe, S., Baser, R. S., Neighbors, H. W., Caldwell, C. H., & Jackson, J. S. (2009) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/chi.0b013e318195bccf · Cited by 157 · see citing works
The prevalence and correlates of DSM-IV disorders in the Iraq Mental Health Survey (IMHS).
Al-Hasnawi, S. M., Sadik, S., Rasheed, M., Baban, A., Al-Alak, M. M., Othman, A. Y., Othman, Y., Taib, N. I., Shawani, O., Murthy, S., et al. (2009) · PubMed Central · Cited by 156 · see citing works
Enduring mental health: Prevalence and prediction.
Schaefer, J. D., Caspi, A., Belsky, D. W., Harrington, H., Houts, R., Horwood, L. J., Hussong, A. M., Ramrakha, S., Poulton, R., & Moffitt, T. E. (2016) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/abn0000232 · Cited by 150 · see citing works
“This article examines Study members who were assessed for mental disorders at ages 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, 26, 32, and 38 years of age.”
BackgroundLifetime prevalence and inter-cohort variation in DSM-IV disorders in metropolitan China
Lee, S., Tsang, A., Zhang, M., Huang, Y., He, Y., Liu, Z., Shen, Y., & Kessler, R. C. (2006) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291706008993 · Cited by 149 · see citing works
Psychiatric disorders in Mexico: Lifetime prevalence in a nationally representative sample
Medina-Mora, M. E., Borges, G., Benjet, C., Lara, C., & Berglund, P. (2007) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.106.025841 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Incidence of late-life depression: A systematic review
Büchtemann, D., Luppa, M., Bramesfeld, A., & Riedel-Heller, S. G. (2012) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2012.05.010 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Rhebergen, D., Beekman, A. T. F., de Graaf, R., Nolen, W. A., Spijker, J., Hoogendijk, W. J., & Penninx, B. W. J. H. (2010) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2009.10.029 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
Gender and outpatient mental health service use
Rhodes, A. E., Goering, P. N., To, T. M., & Williams, J. (2002) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00002-8 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Increased prevalence of depression in South Korea from 2002 to 2013
Kim, G. E., Jo, M., & Shin, Y. (2020) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-74119-4 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
Glantz, M. D., Anthony, J. C., Berglund, P. A., Degenhardt, L. J., Dierker, L., Kalaydjian, A., Merikangas, K. R., Ruscio, A. M., Swendsen, J. D., & Kessler, R. C. (2008) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291708004510 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Tani, Y., Fujiwara, T., Kondo, N., Noma, H., Sasaki, Y., & Kondo, K. (2016) · American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2016.06.001 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Self‐reported use of mental health services versus administrative records: care to recall?
Rhodes, A. E., & Fung, K. (2004) · International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1002/mpr.172 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
“When persons are depressed, they are better at recalling past depressed states or stressful life events (Aneshensel et al., 1987; Simon and VonKorff, 1995).”
BackgroundMarel, C., Sunderland, M., Mills, K. L., Slade, T., Teesson, M., & Chapman, C. (2019) · Drug and Alcohol Dependence · doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.10.010 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Gabilondo, A., Rojas-Farreras, S., Vilagut, G., Haro, J., Fernández, A., Pinto-Meza, A., & Alonso, J. (2010) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2009.04.016 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
“The novel probing strategy that was used in the WMH surveys, which was based in question series (Simon and Vonkorff, 1995), has shown to diminish this bias (Knauper et al., 1999).”
Factors associated with recovery from anorexia nervosa
Zerwas, S., Lund, B. C., Von Holle, A., Thornton, L. M., Berrettini, W. H., Brandt, H., Crawford, S., Fichter, M. M., Halmi, K. A., Johnson, C., et al. (2013) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2013.02.011 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
“Retrospective recall is associated with decreased reliability as a result of memory deterioration, hindsight and recall bias, and a tendency to overemphasize past events, which provide an explanation for current problems (Hardt and Rutter, 2004) or underestimate past morbidity (Simon and Vonkorff, 1995).”
BackgroundAltwaijri, Y. A., Al‐Subaie, A. S., Alhabeeb, A. A., Bilal, L., Al‐Desouki, M., Aradati, M., King, A. J., Sampson, N. A., & Kessler, R. C. (2020) · International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1002/mpr.1836 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
“Evidence for age-related bias has been documented in previous epidemiological research (Simon & VonKorff, 1995), although the novel probing strategy used in the WMH surveys has been shown to reduce this problem (Knäuper et al., 1999).”
MethodFerrari, A. J., Baxter, A. J., & Whiteford, H. (2010) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2010.11.007 · Cited by 113 · see citing works
“Lifetime prevalence estimates are not being used in the GBD 2010 study due to a range of problems including recall bias (Kruijshaar et al., 2005; Moffitt et al., 2010; Simon and VonKorff, 1995; Susser and Shrout, 2010).”
MethodIndicators of mental disorders in UK Biobank—A comparison of approaches
Davis, K. A. S., Cullen, B., Adams, M., Brailean, A., Breen, G., Coleman, J. R. I., Dregan, A., Gaspar, H. A., Hübel, C., Lee, W., et al. (2019) · International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1002/mpr.1796 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
“It may be that mental disorders are also underreported due to perceived stigma of the disorder (Nevin, 2009; Simon & VonKorff, 1995).”
BackgroundROBERTS, R. E., Roberts, C. R., & Chan, W. (2009) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01969.x · Cited by 105 · see citing works
Scott, K. M., Koenen, K. C., King, A., Petukhova, M. V., Alonso, J., Bromet, E. J., Bruffaerts, R., Bunting, B., de Jonge, P., Haro, J. M., et al. (2017) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291717001593 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
Miret, M., Caballero, F. F., Huerta-Ramírez, R., Moneta, M. V., Olaya, B., Chatterji, S., Haro, J. M., & Ayuso‐Mateos, J. L. (2014) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2014.03.045 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Patterns of Health Care Costs Associated With Depression and Substance Abuse in a National Sample
Druss, B. G., & Rosenheck, R. A. (1999) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/ps.50.2.214 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
The prevalence and correlates of workplace depression in the national comorbidity survey replication
Kessler, R. C., Merikangas, K. R., & Wang, P. S. (2008) · Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine · doi:10.1097/jom.0b013e31816ba9b8 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
“Retrospective age-of-onset (AOO) reports were obtained in the NCS-R using a special question series designed to stimulate active memory search and to bound the recall inaccuracy that has been found in previous research on AOO reports.(73) Experimental research has shown that this question sequence yields responses wit…”
MethodTijssen, M. J. A., van Os, J., Wïttchen, H., Lieb, R., Beesdo‐Baum, K., Mengelers, R., & Wichers, M. (2010) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.109.065763 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
The Epidemiology of Depression among Women
Kessler, R. C. (2006) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511841262.004 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Personality disorders in late life. Understanding and overcoming the gap in research.
Agronin, M., & Maletta, G. (2000) · The American journal of geriatric psychiatry · doi:10.1097/00019442-200002000-00002 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
- Authors
- Simon, G. E., & VonKorff, M.
- Affiliations
- Group Health Cooperative (US)
- Corresponding author
- Simon, Gregory E.
- ORCID
- Simon, Gregory E.
- Venue
- Epidemiologic Reviews
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1995
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 221-227
- ISSN
- 0193-936X (ISSN-L)
- 1478-6729
- OpenAlex
- W1531843813
- Cited by
- 269
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 11.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Epidemiologic Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Public Health Service (51338)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods in Epidemiology
- Keywords
- lifetime prevalence, recall bias, cross-sectional survey, depression, mental illness, underestimation of prevalence, older adults, disease severity
- MeSH terms
- Mental Disorders, Cross-Sectional Studies, Humans, Medical History Taking, Mental Recall, Reproducibility of Results, Bias
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
