Publications by authors named "Saskia Van Dorsselaer"

Article Synopsis
  • Mood and anxiety disorders can affect people in different ways, and researchers studied how these conditions change over time.
  • They looked at data from a survey of thousands of adults over several years to find out about different types of mood and anxiety disorders.
  • They discovered four main groups of people, with most being healthy, while those with panic and phobia disorders tended to stay unwell longer and may need more help.
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Objectives: The Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) is frequently used as a screener for mood and anxiety disorders. However, few population-based studies have validated it against a diagnostic instrument assessing disorders following current diagnostic criteria.

Methods: Within the third Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS-3), a representative population-based study of adults (N = 6194; age: 18-75 years), the MHI-5 was used to measure general mental ill-health in the past month.

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Early sexual intercourse initiation has been associated with immediate and long-term risks, which makes the study of trends in sexual initiation an important topic for policy makers. This study investigated trends over time in reported sexual initiation among 15-year-olds across 33 countries between 2010-2018. In addition, we examined if there were cross-country differences in the gender gap in reported sexual initiation in 2018, and whether these could be attributed to gender inequality and gender role attitudes.

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Background: A transdiagnostic and contextual framework of 'clinical characterization', combining clinical, psychopathological, sociodemographic, etiological, and other personal contextual data, may add clinical value over and above categorical algorithm-based diagnosis.

Methods: Prediction of need for care and health care outcomes was examined prospectively as a function of the contextual clinical characterization diagnostic framework in a prospective general population cohort ( = 6646 at baseline), interviewed four times between 2007 and 2018 (NEMESIS-2). Measures of need, service use, and use of medication were predicted as a function of any of 13 DSM-IV diagnoses, both separately and in combination with clinical characterization across multiple domains: social circumstances/demographics, symptom dimensions, physical health, clinical/etiological factors, staging, and polygenic risk scores (PRS).

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Up-to-date information on the prevalence and trends of common mental disorders is relevant to health care policy and planning, owing to the high burden associated with these disorders. In the first wave of the third Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS-3), a nationally representative sample was interviewed face-to-face from November 2019 to March 2022 (6,194 subjects; 1,576 interviewed before and 4,618 during the COVID-19 pandemic; age range: 18-75 years). A slightly modified version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 3.

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Introduction: Studies investigating latent alcohol use groups and transitions of these groups over time are scarce, while such knowledge could facilitate efficient use of screening and preventive interventions for groups with a high risk of problematic alcohol use. Therefore, the present study examines the characteristics, transitions, and long-term stability of adult alcohol use groups and explores some of the possible predictors of the transitions.

Methods: Data were used from the baseline, 3-, 6-, and 9-year follow-up waves of the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2 (NEMESIS-2), a representative study of Dutch adults aged 18-64 at baseline (N = 6,646; number of data points: 20,574).

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study examines the prevalence, incidence, and persistence of psychotic experiences (PEs) in a large sample of adults in the Netherlands, revealing that 16.5% reported a PE in their lifetime and 30.1% had a PE at a three-year follow-up.
  • - Comparison between self-reported data and clinical interviews showed that self-reports indicated prevalence rates two to three times higher than validated assessments; however, the patterns of associated risk factors were consistent across both methods.
  • - The findings suggest that while self-reported data on PEs may be inflated, they can still serve as a cost-effective means for future studies, emphasizing the need for PEs to be assessed in general healthcare settings due to
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how cannabis use affects anxiety, depressive symptoms, and psychotic experiences (PE) over time, finding a complex relationship between these factors.
  • Data from a longitudinal survey in the Netherlands was analyzed, revealing that while cannabis mediates between anxiety/depression and later PE, its indirect impact is minimal.
  • Notably, anxiety and depressive symptoms play a more significant mediating role in the relationship from cannabis use to subsequent PE, suggesting a bidirectional influence between these elements.
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Objectives: NEMESIS-3 (Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-3) is a psychiatric epidemiological cohort study of the Dutch general population that replicates and expands on two previous NEMESIS-studies conducted in 1996-1999 and 2007-2018 respectively. The main aims of NEMESIS-3 are to provide up-to-date information on the prevalence, incidence, course and consequences of mental disorders, their risk indicators, and to study the relevant time trends. This paper gives an overview of the objectives and methods of NEMESIS-3, especially of the recently completed first wave, and describes the sample characteristics.

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Background: Existing studies on disease course usually apply relatively short follow-up periods and narrow definitions of disease course resulting in too optimistic views on disease prognosis. This study explores the relevance of using a longer and broader (cross-disorder) perspective.

Methods: Respondents with a 12-month disorder at baseline and available at 3-, 6- and 9-year follow-up were selected (major depressive disorder, MDD: n = 208; anxiety disorder: n = 220) from a general population study (N = 6646).

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Purpose: The health correlates of polygenic risk (PRS-SCZ) and exposome (ES-SCZ) scores for schizophrenia may vary depending on age and sex. We aimed to examine age- and sex-specific associations of PRS-SCZ and ES-SCZ with self-reported health in the general population.

Methods: Participants were from the population-based Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2 (NEMESIS-2).

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Introduction: Despite the growing number of smoke-free spaces, many non-smokers continue to be involuntarily exposed to secondhand smoke outdoors and on public streets. Both theory and research suggest that people living in densely populated urban areas are more likely to smoke than those living in less densely populated areas. Consequently, non-smokers in densely populated urban areas might be more likely to be exposed and feel annoyed by secondhand smoke outdoors.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explores the relationship between attenuated psychotic symptoms in individuals at high risk for psychosis and the presence of non-psychotic disorders (NPD), suggesting that NPD should not be seen merely as a comorbidity but as a significant factor in understanding psychosis risk.
  • Researchers analyzed data from a large cohort to assess the incidence of early psychotic experiences with and without NPD, finding that those with both conditions had lower incidences of psychotic experiences compared to those without NPD.
  • The findings indicate that the risk of developing psychosis is more influenced by the combination of attenuated psychotic symptoms and NPD rather than by the presence of attenuated symptoms alone, suggesting a need for reevaluating how
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Researchers and politicians have regularly expressed their worries about a widening of socioeconomic inequalities in physical and mental health. Debts have been relatively understudied as a specific aspect of socioeconomic disadvantage contributing to poor mental health. This study examines the bidirectional association between debts and common mental disorders (CMDs) in the adult population of the Netherlands.

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Hypotheses about the link between cannabis use and psychosis apply to the within-person level but have been tested mostly at the between-person level. We used a within-person design, in which a person serves as his own control, thus removing the need to consider confounding by any fixed (genetic and nongenetic) characteristic to study the prospective association between cannabis use and the incidence of attenuated psychotic experiences, and vice versa, adjusted for time-varying confounders. We combined 2 general population cohorts (at baseline: Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology Study, n = 1395; Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2, n = 6603), which applied a similar methodology to study cannabis use and attenuated psychotic experiences with repeated interviews (T0, T1, T2, and T3) over a period of approximately 10 years.

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Purpose: This prospective population-based study investigated whether having any internalizing mental disorder (INT) was associated with the presence and onset of any cardiometabolic disorder (CM) at 3-year follow-up; and vice versa. Furthermore, we examined whether observed associations differed when using longer time intervals of respectively 6 and 9 years.

Methods: Data were used from the four waves (baseline and 3-, 6- and 9-year follow-up) of the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2, a prospective study of a representative cohort of adults.

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The polygenic risk score (PRS) allows for quantification of the relative contributions of genes and environment in population-based studies of mental health. We analyzed the impact of transdiagnostic schizophrenia PRS and measures of familial and environmental risk on the level of and change in general mental health (Short-Form-36 mental health) in the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2 general population sample, interviewed 4 times over a period of 9 years, yielding 8901 observations in 2380 individuals. Schizophrenia PRS, family history, somatic pain, and a range of environmental risks and social circumstances were included in the regression model of level of and change in mental health.

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Article Synopsis
  • A cumulative exposome score for schizophrenia (ES-SCZ) was developed to help identify individuals at risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders by analyzing environmental factors.
  • The effectiveness of ES-SCZ was tested and compared to two other scoring methods (Esum-SCZ and Emet-SCZ) using statistical measures, with ES-SCZ showing the highest discriminative ability (AUC = 0.84).
  • ES-SCZ was significantly associated with psychiatric diagnoses, particularly schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and suicide risk, indicating its potential to enhance risk prediction and understanding of the causes behind these mental health issues.
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Background: Data on episode duration of anxiety disorders are required for informing patients and for disease management, but such data from population studies are lacking.

Methods: Three-year longitudinal data were used from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2, a psychiatric epidemiological cohort study among the general adult population (N = 6646). Respondents with a new (first or recurrent) anxiety disorder were selected (n = 158).

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Background: There is evidence that environmental and genetic risk factors for schizophrenia spectrum disorders are transdiagnostic and mediated in part through a generic pathway of affective dysregulation.

Methods: We analysed to what degree the impact of schizophrenia polygenic risk (PRS-SZ) and childhood adversity (CA) on psychosis outcomes was contingent on co-presence of affective dysregulation, defined as significant depressive symptoms, in (i) NEMESIS-2 ( = 6646), a representative general population sample, interviewed four times over nine years and (ii) EUGEI ( = 4068) a sample of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, the siblings of these patients and controls.

Results: The impact of PRS-SZ on psychosis showed significant dependence on co-presence of affective dysregulation in NEMESIS-2 [relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI): 1.

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Importance: Both adulthood stressful life events (SLEs) and liability for schizophrenia have been associated with poor mental and physical health in the general population, but their interaction remains to be elucidated to improve population-based health outcomes.

Objective: To test whether recent SLEs interact with genetic and environmental liability for schizophrenia in models of mental and physical health.

Design, Setting, And Participants: The Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2 is a population-based prospective cohort study designed to investigate the prevalence, incidence, course, and consequences of mental disorders in the Dutch general population.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study investigated the incidence of clinical psychosis in a general population, analyzing how prior mental health conditions contributed to this incidence.
  • The research found that 63 out of every 100,000 people experienced clinical psychosis, with mood disorders, psychosis high-risk states, and drug use disorders being significant predictors of this outcome.
  • Approximately 85.5% of clinical psychosis cases were linked to these prior mental health issues, suggesting that a broader approach to mental health prevention may be more effective than focusing solely on psychosis risk.
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Article Synopsis
  • * A study tracked the incidence of hallucinations in two groups over time, finding that visual hallucinations were the most common, followed closely by haptic and auditory types, indicating a consistent pattern between different studies.
  • * The findings suggest that hallucinations across various sensory modalities are linked to mental disorders and delusional thinking, indicating that they should be examined together to understand their shared underlying causes.
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Background: Contemporary models of psychosis implicate the importance of affective dysregulation and cognitive factors (e.g. biases and schemas) in the development and maintenance of psychotic symptoms, but studies testing proposed mechanisms remain limited.

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