Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey: Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, England, 2014.

The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) series provides data on the prevalence of both treated and untreated psychiatric disorder in the English adult population (aged 16 and over). This survey is the fourth in a series and was conducted by NatCen Social Research, in collaboration with the University of Leicester, for NHS Digital.

The previous surveys were conducted in 1993 (16-64 year olds) and 2000 (16-74 year olds) by the Office for National Statistics, which covered England, Scotland and Wales. The 2007 Survey included people aged over 16 and covered England only.

The survey used a robust stratified, multi-stage probability sample of households and assesses psychiatric disorder to actual diagnostic criteria for several disorders.

The report features chapters on: common mental disorders, mental health treatment and service use, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychotic disorder, autism, personality disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, alcohol, drugs, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and self-harm, and comorbidity.

All the APMS surveys have used largely consistent methods. They have been designed so that the survey samples can be combined. This is particularly useful for examination of low prevalence population groups and disorders. For example, in the APMS 2014 survey report, analyses of psychotic disorder (Chapter 5) and autism (Chapter 6) have been run using the 2007 and 2014 samples combined. Due to the larger sample size, we consider estimates based on the combined sample to be the more robust.  Further notes on the Autism chapter can be found with that chapter and in the 'Additional notes on autism' document below.

NHS Digital carried out a consultation exercise to obtain feedback from users on the APMS publication and statistics. The consultation will inform the design, content and reporting of any future survey. The consultation closed 30 December 2016, findings will be made available by April 2017. You can access the results of consultation when available in the Related Links below.

A correction has been made to this publication in September 2017. This correction applies to all statistics relating to people receiving medication for a mental health condition and more widely to people accessing mental health treatment. This correction increases the proportion of adults (aged 16-74) with a common mental disorder accessing mental health treatment in 2014 from 37 per cent to 39 per cent. Overall the proportion of all people receiving mental health treatment in 2014 increases from 12 per cent to 13 per cent. Logistic regression models used in chapter 3 have not been corrected due to the change not being large enough to change the findings of this analysis.

A further correction has been made to this publication in February 2018. This correction applies to statistics for Asian/Asian British men and all adults in Table 10.5 - Harmful and dependent drinking in the past year (observed and age-standardised), by ethnic group and sex. Statistics for the number of respondents with an AUDIT score of 16 or over previously incorrectly included only those with an AUDIT score between 16 and 19. This has now been corrected to include respondents with an AUDIT score of 20 or more. NHS Digital apologies for any inconvenience caused.