Social inequality in mental disorder diagnoses and psychotropic medication use among 15-year-old adolescents in Denmark from 2002–2022

TL;DR

This study shows that mental health issues in Danish adolescents have increased over 20 years, with social inequality patterns changing differently across types of disorders.

Contribution

The study reveals diagnosis-specific trends in social inequality related to mental health among Danish adolescents from 2002–2022.

Findings

Mental disorder diagnoses and medication use among 15-year-olds increased from 2002 to 2022.

Social inequality patterns varied by disorder type, with stronger links for substance use disorders and weaker links for mood disorders.

High-SES groups maintained stable odds ratios compared to middle-SES, while low-SES groups showed decreasing associations.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine if the social inequality in adolescent mental health has changed in the past decades (2002–2022) by studying the associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and mental health measures in 15-year-old adolescents.

This study is a register-based study consisting of seven cross-sectional analyses of associations between adolescents’ SES, defined as family income and parents’ educational level, and mental health, defined as mental disorder diagnosis and medication use. The population consists of all registered residents in Denmark who turned 15 years in the years 2002–2022. All data was obtained from Danish population-based registers. The prevalence of mental health measures was calculated, and the associations between SES and mental health were analysed with log-binomial regression.

The prevalence of mental disorder diagnoses and medication use of adolescents increased during the past two decades. Associations between SES and mental health were found between all measures during the period, however, a trend toward decreasing associations for low-SES groups and stable odds ratios for high-SES groups compared to the middle-SES were observed. Diagnosis-specific analyses—including eight diagnostic categories—revealed divergent trends, such as increasing associations for SES and substance use disorders and decreasing associations for SES and mood disorders.

This study highlights persistent but evolving social inequalities in adolescent mental health in Denmark from 2002 to 2022. While the prevalence of mental health diagnoses increased, changes in inequality patterns were diagnosis-specific, suggesting that broader societal trends may influence types of mental disorders differently.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00127-025-02943-y.

Figures