I think that both @tformanek.bsky.social and @dannicc.bsky.social did a great job! We all agreed that it is not black or white and it will depend on the specific study, but the popular vote went to ‘hypothesis-driven approaches’. It was a good way to discuss different approaches 😊

This study was carried out in collaboration with colleagues mostly at @aarhusuni.bsky.social (Natalie Momen, Christoffer Beck, Mette Lise Lousdal, Esben Agerbo, John McGrath, Carsten B Pedersen & Merete Nordentoft) with the funding from the Lundbeck Foundation - thanks for the support!

While trends may partly be explained by increase in underlying incidence, several other factors may contribute, such as diagnostic practices, health sector capacity, and risk factors for mental disorders.

Our study highlights the complex patterns of mental disorder incidence and underscores the importance of considering sex, age, and temporal factors in mental health research.

3️⃣ For schizophrenia, incidence rates increased for females in recent birth cohorts at younger ages (while remaining stable for males), leading to a higher peak incidence for females than for males in the most recent periods.

Key Findings:

1️⃣ The overall incidence rate of mental disorders was 55 per 10,000 person-years.

2️⃣ Higher incidence rates were observed in younger ages for more recent birth cohorts and calendar periods for most types of mental disorders, with notable sex differences.

We estimated the sex- and age-specific incidence of diagnosed mental disorders across different birth cohorts and calendar periods. This population-based cohort study, encompassing anonymous data from 6 million individuals, provides a detailed analysis of mental disorder trends from 2004 to 2021.