Epidemiological study of psychological discomfort in French and Algerian samples

A sample of 45 algerian women and a sample of 125 french women of the same age and marital status are compared on their state of psychological well, or illbeing. All the probands were extracted from the general population. Our measurement of "impairment in daily life" appears to be a reliable detector of light or more consequential depression. This syndrome covers almost the whole range of the psychopathology we have found, and its structure is essentially the same in the French and Algerian samples. The one-year prevalence of depressive syndrome for the two samples combined (n = 170) is 15% for the mildly impaired and 3% for the more markedly impaired. The intercultural comparison shows a statistically significant difference between the two samples, the algerian women being relatively more depressed. When the entire sample is divided into sub-groups, the results show a close relationship between global life conditions and mental health. In particular, the women who go out to work and like their activity are the most symptom-free.