The Rise of Psychiatric Diagnoses and Medication Use in Youth: investigating contributing factors in a nationally representative cohort of 34000 youth across 20 years.

Research problem and specific questions: Psychiatric diagnoses and medication use has increased rapidly in youth, especially for ADHD, autism, depression, and anxiety.

Several factors likely contribute, including a possible increase in underlying symptoms, shifting perceptions of mental health, diagnostic expansion, and increased societal demands on today´s youth. Contributing factors likely vary across diagnoses, sex, and socioeconomic groups.

Addressing these questions requires longitudinal studies with information on both clinical diagnoses and psychiatric symptoms.

Such studies are exceedingly rare, leaving a large knowledge gaps about how and why the prevalence of mental health issues has changed over time.This project will answer if youth diagnosed or medicated for ADHD, autism, depression, or anxiety today: 1) exhibit fewer symptoms compared to previous generations, 2) represent a partially new patient group with different background factors, and 3) if the associations between these psychiatric problems and key outcomes including educational attainment, suicide, and crime have changed over time.

We will examine how these associations differ by age, sex, and socioeconomic background.Data and method: To achieve this, we will use epidemiological methods to analyze annually collected parent- and self-rated measures of mental health in 34000 children and adolescents from 2004 onwards.

These data are linked to nationwide registers, with information on diagnoses, medication, and sociodemographic factors until 2020.Societal relevance and utilization: Psychiatric illness is the leading cause of disability in youth.

This project will elucidate how the increase in psychiatric diagnoses and medication prescriptions in youth relates to changes in underlying symptoms, background factors and outcomes over time.

We will examine differences in these associations by sex and socioeconomic status to shed light on if there are groups of young people in need of more care, and those at risk of overtreatment.

Such knowledge is crucial for designing effective interventions, preventive measures, and policy reforms aimed at improving the mental health of young people.Plan for project realization: The project will run for three years and use existing data and infrastructures.

Our multidisciplinary team includes experts in epidemiology, public health, child and adolescent psychiatry, with an excellent track record of research at the forefront of youth mental health.