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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
[Mental health services to poor patients with affective disorders in Mexico City]
Shoshana Berenzon1, Francisco Juárez
1Dirección de Investigaciones Epidemiológicas y Psicosociales, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, México. berenz@imp.edu.mx
Objective:
To describe the pathways of formal and informal services utilization in urban low income population presenting depressive, dysthymic and bipolar disorders.
Methods:
Information was gathered in face to face interviews using a standardized questionnaire that included sections from the Composite International Diagnostic Interview and one section on service utilization. Interviewees (n=1,486) were selected through stratified socioeconomic variables and a random multistep sample of households of Mexico City.
Results:
A significant proportion of individuals with affective disorders attended at the same time to formal and informal services. It was observed that the majority of individuals established the first contact with a general practitioner (81% of the men with depressive disorders, 100% with dysthymia and 36% with bipolar disorders; 44.4% of the women with depression, 23% with dysthymia and 100% with bipolar disorders). Also, 45% of men with depression, 40% with dysthymia and 65% of the women with bipolar disorders sought help through resources provided by alternative medicines.
Conclusions:
The combination of various medical systems has at least two roles: 1) increases the set of care options and thereby maximize healthcare resources available; 2) allows to approaching different aspects of the same illness that a single medical system is unable to meet its complexity.
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