An epidemiological study of disorders in late childhood and adolescence--II. Persistence of disorders.

The persistence and new onset of psychiatric disorder were studied in a sample of 734 children from the general population. Diagnoses for six of the more prevalent disorders were generated from maternal and child interviews when the children were ages 9-18 and again 2 1/2 years later. Analyses demonstrated substantial levels of diagnostic persistence over the 2 1/2 year period for all diagnoses except major depression. With few exceptions persistence was roughly equivalent for age and gender subgroups. It is concluded that disorders assessed by structured interview of non-clinical samples of children cannot be dismissed as transitory.