Oleguer Plana-Ripoll

Project title

MENTTIME: The burden of mental disorders over time

What is your project about?

In recent years, the incidence of mental disorders has increased, but it is unclear whether more people are experiencing mental disorders, whether they are diagnosed more, or likely a combination of both. More importantly, it is unknown whether differences in well-being, quality of life, or premature mortality between those with and without mental disorders are increasing or decreasing over time. With the support of this Sapere Aude grant, the proposed research project will use an innovative approach to provide a valid and comprehensive analysis of the mental health impact in Denmark over time. By combining epidemiological data from Danish registries, we propose to describe the characteristics of people with mental disorders over time and to understand what factors contribute to the changes in the impact of mental disorders on several health and societal outcomes.

How did you become interested in your particular field of research?

I have a background in mathematics and statistics, and I am therefore very interested in quantitative methods and working with complex data. I also come from a family with a long tradition in medicine, so one might say that it runs in my blood to try to apply my quantitative skills to health research. As a postdoctoral researcher, I was introduced to the field of psychiatric epidemiology, and I was strongly inspired by my mentors and colleagues. I learned that we have a unique opportunity to use the large and growing amounts of data available to try to make a difference in the lives of those who suffer from mental disorders and for the society in general.

What are the scientific challenges and perspectives in your project?

We aim to use health data to examine the impact of mental disorders and how it has changed over time. One key challenge will be to identify cases suffering from mental disorders based on hospital registers because this type of data only includes the most severe cases that require a visit with a specialist. Another key challenge in this study is to determine how the impact of mental disorders on health and societal outcomes has changed over time. That would be relatively straightforward if those diagnosed with a mental disorder today were similar to those diagnosed in the past (in terms of overall health status, social characteristics, etc.). However, the characteristics of patients have changed over time, and it is important to account for these differences in our study. Working on addressing these challenges constitutes an important part of the project, and the methods we develop will be available to other researchers.

What is your estimate of the impact, which your project may have to society in the long term?

Mental disorders are common – one in every three individuals is expected to experience a mental disorder at some point during their life. Thus, the entire society is directly or indirectly affected by mental disorders. Our project aims at developing new methods that can account for changes in patient characteristics over time; thus, we will be able to provide a tool to monitor mental disorders and the impact of potential new interventions, for example, those in relation to the newly-developed 10-year plan for psychiatry in Denmark. In the long term, we hope this type of research will help us better understand patient needs and improve the lives of people with mental disorders and their families.

Which impact do you expect the Sapere Aude programme will have on your career as a researcher?

It is a great honor to receive this Sapere Aude grant! The grant will allow me to start an ambitious research project to address important challenges in relation to mental health. It is important to me that the research group is diverse and inclusive, and I hope the Sapere Aude grant will help me recruit talented researchers with diverse backgrounds to provide different points of view. I have been lucky to have supportive mentors throughout my career, and I intend to continue this tradition with the next generation of scientists.

Background and personal life

I am originally from Granollers, a middle-sized city near Barcelona in Catalonia. My wife and I moved to Aarhus in 2012 to start a PhD, and we are both still working at Aarhus University. We live in Stavtrup (Aarhus) together with our two daughters (6 and 4 years old), and we have a dog and a cat. I enjoy biking to and from work (especially when the weather is good) and, in my free time, I like spending quality time with my friends, playing padel tennis, and walking in the nature.