Todays statistics: 1)average value of retirement accounts over the
last few decades.2)What is the % of successful rehabilitation of
criminals? Has that changed over the years? How many people visit a
doctor for depression every year? Trends? how many antidepressents are
prescribed?

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Request for Question Clarification by knowledge_seeker-ga on 09 Jan 2003 10:58 PST

Hi qpet,

Since your questions are entirely unrelated to each other, you might
consider posting each of them separately. This will increase the
likelihood that at least part of your question will be answered.

-K~

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Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 09 Jan 2003 11:31 PST

Hi -

I would tend to agree.  I've done some preliminary searching, and have
found that either separate postings, or an increase to $50-$75 range
would be befitting.

jbf777-ga

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Clarification of Question by qpet-ga on 09 Jan 2003 13:09 PST

I have increased the list price to $75 hope that will compensate you
for your time.(with any of these questions it is hard for me to
understand the effort involved, so I usually price them relative to
the importance to my project.

Dear qpet,

Thanks for your question.  First, let me request that if any of the
following is unclear or if you require any further research – please
don’t hesitate to ask me for a clarification.

I’ll address your questions one-by-one.


Average Value of Retirement Accounts Over Last Few Decades
*******************************************************

I have found several sources for this data.  The first provides data
for the value of retirement accounts in 1983, 1989, 1992 and 1995 as a
percentage of household assets, as well as a plethora of other
relevant information –

http://www.iue.it/FinConsEU/papers/bertaut.pdf

Look for the tables at the back of the paper.

The following report from Republican Jim Saxton of the United States
Congress Joint Economic Committee looks at the growth in retirement
accounts with a focus on 401-Ks – see especially pages 8-11 –

http://www.house.gov/jec/mutual2.pdf

The following paper is also very rich in relevant data; also includes
total asset data, to which you can apply the percentage from the first
paper as a multiplier; however, this paper only tackles 1983 and 1989.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/1996/199618/199618pap.pdf

The following report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute
details total retirement plan assets from 1950 to 1997; dividing by
the number of households will yield you the required average
retirement account value as well:

http://www.ebri.org/facts/1298fact.pdf

Number of household data is available at –

http://www.itsdocs.fhwa.dot.gov/%5CJPODOCS%5CREPTS_TE/6@W01!.PDF

(see page 33)

Or see the Bureau of the Census –

http://www.census.gov/prod/1/pop/p25-1129.pdf

(see page 5 of the report - # of households from 1940 to 1990)

As an aside, here’s an excellent report on retirement prospects from
the National Commission on Retirement Policy –

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/e_archive/gov_reports/ncrp/CanAmericaAffordtoRetire.pdf


% of Successful Criminal Rehabilitation
**********************************

I was able to find data on recidivism – essentially, the reciprocal of
successful rehabilitation; the following report from the Bureau of
Justice Statistics provides a plethora of statistics on recidivism of
criminals released in 1994 and 1983 (the study was published in June
2002; consider that a long term view must be taken in order to come up
with relevant statistics).

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/rpr94.pdf

On the whole, it seems that the justice system’s rehabilitation
efforts have been trending to the negative – “Among nearly 300,000
prisoners released in 15 States in 1994, 67.5% were rearrested within
3 years. A study of 1983 releases estimated 62.5%.” – this means that
within a three-year time span, 32.5% of criminals could be considered
to have been rehabilitated in 1997 (based on 1994 releases), vs. 37.5%
in 1986 (when considering 1983 releases).  Of course, this does not
(and cannot…) take into account released prisoners who had committed
crimes but were not caught.


Depression
***********

You had several questions about depression:
How many people visit a doctor for depression every year? Trends?
How many antidepressants are prescribed?

Here is some information from an article by Dr. Neil Anderson found at
–

http://drgrantmullen.com/forwrd.html

+ “According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 17.6 million
Americans will suffer from depression in any given year.”

The following statistics point to a marked and significant increase in
the diagnosis and treatment of depression – (same source) –

+ “In America the number of doctor visits in which patients received
medication for mental problems (annually!) rose from 3 2.7 million to
45.6 million over the decade from 1985 to 1994.”
+ “Visits in which depression was diagnosed almost doubled over the
same ten years, from 11 million to 20.4 million.”

An article in the Washington Post from May 2002 provides additional
data –

“As the number of doctor visits for depression rose from 14 million in
1987 to almost 25 million last year (2001), medications were
prescribed for nine in 10 patients, according to research published
last week.”

And something on the amount of time depression patients spend with
doctors – “the average patient with depression sees a doctor perhaps
20 minutes a month.”

Source is –

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42930-2002May6?language=printer

If 9 out of 10 patients are receiving medication, that means that in
2001 22.5 million patients received some sort of medication for their
depression.

A press release from Kalorama provides additional info on the
therapeutic drug market –

http://www.contac.org/contaclibrary/medications5.htm

For example, “The U.S. market for psychotherapeutics quadrupled
between 1994-98, resulting in revenues totaling $15.3 billion,
according to a study published by Kalorama Information. Revenues are
projected to grow another 12.7 % per year, reaching $27.7 billion over
the next three years. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's)
accounted for the largest share of the market, 39.3%, but are expected
to decline over the next three years.”

And if there was any doubt the trend is to prescribe more medications,
“In 1998, the number of doctor visits where patients received
prescriptions for mental problems skyrocketed to 45.6 million from
32.7 million earlier in the decade.”

I hope this response adequately addresses your request.  Please let me
know if you are in need of additional information concerning this
query.

Thanks,
ragingacademic-ga


Search Strategy:

"number of households in the us" us 1950 1960 1970
"number of households" "bureau of the census" 1950 1960 1970
growth "retirement accounts" 1950 1960 1970 1980
"growth in retirement accounts"

"successful criminal rehabilitation"

"number of doctor visits" depression medications
"number of doctor visits" depression "medications prescribed"
"number of doctor visits" depression

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Request for Answer Clarification by qpet-ga on 10 Jan 2003 06:19 PST

Hi ragingacademic-ga,
Thank you for your answer. It is hard for me to find the statistics I
was looking for inredaurds to retirement accounts. Could you please
get me a
summary (one paragraph will do), the data on criminal rehab is OK. as
far as
depression goes, is there any data from the 50's/60's/or 70's? In
regards to
medication, the22.5 million, are these only new prescriptions? What is
the number of all individuals using antidepressives? Thank you in
advance for the clarification
qpet-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by qpet-ga on 11 Jan 2003 09:41 PST

.

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Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 11 Jan 2003 10:09 PST

qpet -

Thanks for your clarification request.

I will provide you with the additional information shortly.
Thanks for your patience.

ragingacademic

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Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 13 Jan 2003 19:05 PST

Dear qpet,

Thanks for your clarification request.

I’ll address your questions one-by-one.

Average Value of Retirement Accounts Over Last Few Decades
*******************************************************

The best way to calculate the numbers you seek is to divide the total
retirement plan assets as reported by the Employee Benefit Research
Institute for the years 1950 to 1997, found at -

http://www.ebri.org/facts/1298fact.pdf

by the Bureau of the Census household # reported at -

http://www.census.gov/prod/1/pop/p25-1129.pdf

        Total                         Average 
        Retirement      Total # of    Retirement Plan 
        Plan Assets      Households   Assets per 
Year	($ Billions)	(1000s)	      household ($s)
--------------------------------------------------------
1950	$21.60 	        43468	      496.9173
1960	$86.70 	        52610	      1647.976
1970	$236.10 	63450	      3721.04
1980	$1,030.70 	80390	      12821.25
1990	$4,088.00 	91947	      44460.4
1995	$6,845.40 (est) 97723         70049.02

Calculation by total population –


        Total                         Average 
        Retirement      Total         Retirement Plan 
        Plan Assets     Population    Assets per 
Year	($ Billions)	(1000s)	      person ($s)
--------------------------------------------------------
1950	$21.60 	        146487.2	147.4532
1960	$86.70 	        175191.3	494.8876
1970	$236.10 	199233	        1185.045
1980	$1,030.70 	221876.4	4645.379
1990	$4,088.00 	241820.6	16905.09
1995	$6,845.40 	256034.3	26736.27

Calculation based on population 18 years and over –

        Total           Total              Average 
        Retirement      Population         Retirement Plan 
        Plan Assets     18 and Older       Assets per 
Year	($ Billions)	(1000s)	           adult ($s)
--------------------------------------------------------
1950	$21.60 	        100411.1	   215.1157
1960	$86.70 	        111533.2 	   777.347
1970	$236.10 	130072.5	   1815.142
1980	$1,030.70 	158368.3	   6508.247
1990	$4,088.00 	178377.2	   22917.73
1995	$6,845.40 	187628.2	   36483.86


Depression
***********

You had several additional questions about depression:

+ As far as depression goes, is there any data from the 50's/60's/or
70's?

While I have not found exact statistics, I have found several quotes
and “close calls” that may help you in your research –

A good estimate is the following –

“The rate of depression in the 1950s was estimated at about 50 people
per million, whereas today it is estimated at 100,000 per million”

From –

http://www.santa.inuk.com/support%20groups.htm

Another estimate, which gives some sense of the prevalence of
depression in the 1970s –

“Today up to 20% of the population meet criteria for a watered-down,
broad, and, ultimately, a less lethal depressive diagnosis. In
contrast, the prevalence of depression in the 1970s was only 2-3%.”

http://psychological.com/qow1000-1200.htm

Related – suicide rates among adolescents from the 1950s on –

http://www.lorenbennett.org/scdcyouth.htm

The following research article claims as follows:

“A review of 4 longitudinal studies, conducted in Sweden, Canada, and
the US, indicates that the epidemiology of depression and anxiety in
general populations may have changed over the 3rd quarter of this
century. In each study, more women than men at mid-century were found
to have experienced depression and/or anxiety. By the end of the
quarter, women and men in a few to several age groups were more equal
in this regard than they had been earlier. It is suggested that social
and historical changes may have contributed to these epidemiologic
trends and that these trends may be related to the changing roles of
men and women.”

This is from –

Title:	Trends in depression and anxiety: Men and women.
Author(s):	Murphy, Jane M., Massachusetts General Hosp, Psychiatric
Epidemiology Unit, Boston
Source:	Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Vol 73(2), Feb 1986. pp.
113-127.

If you could locate a copy of the above article, it may provide more
exact statistical backup.


+ In regards to medication, the 22.5 million, are these only new
prescriptions?

No, this would be the total number of individuals who received
antidepressant prescriptions over the course of the year.

+ What is the number of all individuals using antidepressives?

I could not find a more accurate number (and not for lack of trying!)
– but given that we have an estimate for the number of new
prescriptions on an annual basis, the total number cannot deviate from
this a whole lot (not many people use medications prescribed more than
twelve months in the past).

Here are some additional statistics from the CDC (Center for Disease
Control):

+ Number of Annual Office Visits to Physicians for Mental Disorders:
29,939,000 (2000)
+ Number of Annual Office Visits for Depression: 10,043,000 (2000) 

Source:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/mental.htm

I hope this clarification response helps in further addressing your
request.  Let me know if you have questions regarding this
clarification and my previous reply.

Thanks,
ragingacademic-ga

Thank you for the additional information, it will be quite helpful.
qpet