NCS-1: National Comorbidity Survey Baseline, 1990-1992

Over 8,000 respondents participated in the National Comorbidity Survey Baseline, a nationally representative household survey conducted in the early 1990s. The collaborative epidemiologic investigation, led by Ronald C. Kessler, studied the prevalence and patterns of DSM III-R mental disorders and service utilization correlates. Diagnoses were based on a modified version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview developed at the University of Michigan.

Use Cases

• Analyzing prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders based on DSM III-R criteria mentioned in the description
• Studying correlates of mental health service utilization based on survey questions
• Mapping geographic patterns of mental health using Census FIPS codes included in the restricted version
• Benchmarking psychiatric epidemiology models against a foundational nationally representative sample

Strengths

• Nationally representative sample of over 8,000 respondents
• First survey to administer a structured psychiatric interview to such a sample
• Includes geographic variables like Census FIPS codes for state, county, and tract-level linkage

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Frequency tables in the codebook are suppressed to preserve confidentiality, limiting metadata

Provenance

Source

Institute for Social Research

Collection Method

Household survey using a modified Composite International Diagnostic Interview (UM-CIDI)

Time Range

1990-1992

Geography

United States (nationally representative)