People with One Psychiatric Disorder Are Likely to Have Another One

To determine rates of psychiatric comorbidity in a 17-year period, investigators cross-referenced Danish national databases on 5.9 million people (mean baseline age, 32) to identify new diagnoses across 10 broad diagnostic groups in the International Classification of Diseases–10 (organic disorders, substance use, schizophrenia and related disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders, intellectual disorders, developmental disorders, behavioral disorders, and neurotic disorders [including anxiety, somatoform, and stress-related disorders]).

In analyses of pairs of diagnostic groups, receiving a diagnosis of any disorder significantly increased the risk for a second one. The likelihood of a new additional diagnosis was hi…