Based on the recommendations of several reviews and advisory panels such as the landmark Surgeon General's Report, on Mental Health11 and a subgroup of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) National Advisory Mental Health Council,117 NIMH established several research initiatives to address the lack of national statistics on mental health in children. First, a brief dimensional scale of recent (past 6 months) symptoms of mental disorders, the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ),118 was added to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) in 2001. The NHIS assesses close to 50 000 families containing a total of approximately 10 000 youth (ages 4 to 17) each year.119,120 Second, selected modules from the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC) Version 4121 were administered to a sample of 8449 youth (ages 8 to 19) in the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.60,122 Third, the NIMH took advantage of the opportunity to collect nationally representative data on adolescent mental health by extending the lower age range of the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R),123 a nationally representative survey of adult mental disorders that
