[The current state of mental health surveillance in France]

The purpose of health surveillance is to contribute to health planning, information and prevention. Surveillance involves repeated data collections based on epidemiological studies and follow-up of data collected from medical-administrative databases. This paper provides an overview of mental health surveillance in France and examines the relevance and limitations of the collected data.

The prevalence of major depressive episodes (MDE) in the general population was recently examined in seven studies. Among these studies, the Health Barometers involved two data collections at a five-year interval using the same method. Mortality and hospitalization data are important for suicide and suicide attempt (SA) surveillance. Health insurance databases provide key information about psychotropic drug use and serious psychiatric illnesses defined as long-term.

The prevalence of 12‑month MDE remained stable at 7.8% between 2005 and 2010. Mortality data show a suicide rate of 16 per 100,000 inhabitants. Hospital data show that the rate of hospitalization for SAs is approximately ten times that of suicide. Data from emergency wards indicate that approximately 220,000 SAs are admitted to hospital emergency services every year. Currently, depressive disorders are the primary reason for new admissions under the ALD23.

A comparison of data from different sources is required to provide a basis for mental health surveillance in France and to help identify those populations that need to be targeted as a matter of priority by prevention measures.