​Vision

Our vision is to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders, with a special interest in affective disorders, dementia, and sleep, in order to improve preventive measures and treatment.

To achieve this vision, we work towards:

• A better understanding of the development of psychiatric disorders, with an emphasis on identifying risk factors and elucidating underlying mechanisms, especially the influence of social and intergenerational factors.
• A better understanding of predisposing states or comorbid illnesses e.g., how cognitive function and sleep disorders influence the trajectories of psychiatric disorders.
• A better understanding of the effects of treatment of psychiatric disorders, with an emphasis on identifying treatment patterns and predictors of successful and unsuccessful treatment strategies.
• A better understanding of the consequences of suffering from a psychiatric disorder on health, labor market affiliation, and socioeconomic factors.

Research approach

We primarily conduct large register-based studies exploiting the unique opportunities in Denmark to combine data from large cohorts with national registry data on health (hospital diagnoses, treatment, and causes of death), medication (redeemed prescriptions), other treatment options (psycho- and electroconvulsive therapy), and administrative data covering socioeconomic factors such as educational achievements, income, and employment history.

We emphasize professional exchange of knowledge and ideas as well as development both within the section and with our many external collaborators and take pride in the fact that our work is of high international quality.

Group members

The group is led by Professor in clinical epidemiology Merete Osler, M.D., Ph.D., DMSc., and currently consists of senior researchers, postdocs, Ph.D. students, and several pre-graduate students. Most of our researchers have educational backgrounds in public health and medicine and several are also practicing psychiatry and social medicine.

Senior researchers

Gunhild Tidemann Okholm, MSc Public Health, Ph.D.

Terese Sara Høj Jørgensen, MSc Public Health, Ph.D.

​Helene Moustgaard​, læge​

Maarten Pieter Rozing, M.D., Ph.D.

Egill Rostrup, Overlæge

Postdocs

Frederikke Hørdam Groneman​n, MSc Public Health, Ph.D.​​

Ida Kim Wium-Andersen, M.D., Ph.D.

Marie Kim Wium-Andersen, M.D., Ph.D., DMSc.

​Ph.D. students

Lea Stevnsborg, M.D.

Marie Birkvig Raft, M.D.

Agnes Ladelund, M.D.​

Thomas Wolff Rosenqvist​, M.D.

Collaborations

We have a number of ongoing collaborations with several psychiatric centers in the Capital Region of Denmark, the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen, the Department of Social Medicine at Frederiksberg and Bispebjerg Hospital, the Danish Veteran Centre, and the Institute of Public Health at the University of Southern Denmark. We are always interested in new collaborations.

​Data

Besides register data the group also has access to and use data from the Danish Conscription​ cohort and the Metropolit cohort. 

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Contact: Merete Osler​​