L'Information Psychiatrique
MENUMental health in the general population: Images and realities in Tahiti Volume 98, issue 7, Août-Septembre 2022
- Key words: psychiatric pathology, suicide risk, mental health, risk factor, prevention, French Polynesia
- DOI : 10.1684/ipe.2022.2464
- Page(s) : 521-9
- Published in: 2022
The Survey on Mental Health in the General Population (SMPG) was conducted in French Polynesia between 2015 and 2017. It highlights the prevalence of major mental disorders and suicide risk among adults in the general French Polynesian population. The quota sampling method was used to draw a sample of 968 people aged 18 and over. Psychiatric diagnoses and suicide risk were evaluated using a MINI questionnaire (ICD-10). The prevalence of mental disorders (42.8%), active suicidal ideation (13.4%), recent suicide attempts (2.6%), and lifetime suicide attempts (18.6%) was high in French Polynesia. The high prevalence of suicide risk and mental disorders in the general French Polynesian population must lead to a suicide prevention and mental health plan and to further research identifying cultural risk factors.