Development of Lifetime Comorbidity in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys

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Abstract
Comorbidity is the norm among common mental disorders because more than 50% of people with a mental disorder in a given year meet criteria for multiple disorders.1,2 The structure of this comorbidity has been the subject of considerable interest. Beginning with an influential article by Krueger,3 numerous researchers have documented that bivariate associations among hierarchy-free anxiety, mood, behavior, and substance disorders can be accounted for by correlated latent predispositions to internalizing and externalizing disorders, with division of internalizing disorders into secondary dimensions of fear (eg, panic and phobia) and distress (eg, major depressive episode and generalized anxiety disorder).4-9