Brief Communication Self-Reported Diagnoses of Schizophrenia and Psychotic Disorders May Be Valuable for Monitoring

chizophrenia is a severe and debilitating mental illness. It is characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorga-nized behaviour, negative symptoms, and (or) social or occu-pational dysfunction (1–4). Although the reported incidence of schizophrenia has declined during this century, the number of people reporting problems with psychosis continues to grow as life expectancy increases (6). For these reasons, schizophrenia is an important target for mental health surveillance. Annual prevalence estimates are approximately 1 % in the general population (3), with annual incidence estimates of schizophrenia being 0.20 to 0.40 per 1000. Although inci-dence does not vary between sexes, men often have a younger age of onset than women; however, the proportion of men and women who develop schizophrenia is almost the same (6). As with most mental disorders, variance in worldwide preva-lence estimates are often a result of differences in diagnostic Can J Psychiatry, Vol 51, No 4, March 2006256 Objective: To examine whether a plausible estimate of the prevalence of schizophrenia can be obtained with a self-report item in a health survey. Methods: We estimated a self-reported prevalence of schizophrenia, using a grouped variable for all people who reported schizophrenia or any other psychotic disorder in the Canadian Community Health Survey: Mental Health and Well-Being (n = 36 984). Estimates were stratified according to age, sex, and province of residence. Results: Of survey respondents, 411 (1.1%) reported having schizophrenia or other psychosis, as diagnosed by a health professional; the weighted and adjusted estimate was 0.9 % (0.7 % to 1.0%). There was no statistical evidence that the prevalence estimates of schizophrenia and other psychosis varied by age, sex, or province of residence. Conclusions: Additional studies incorporating a gold standard diagnostic interview should be carried out to determine the validity of the approach. However, responses to 2 self-report survey items provide what appears to be a plausible epidemiologic pattern