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Enhanced estimation of the prevalence of treated mental health disorders by wastewater-based epidemiology

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Wastewater analysis can quantify the pharmaceuticals used to treat mental health disorders, providing data for policy development. This Comment highlights the potential of such wastewater-based epidemiology to enhance the estimation of treated mental health disorders at the community level.

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Fig. 1: Wastewater and mental health burden framework.

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Acknowledgements

T.B. is funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (project number 1225924N) for conducting his wastewater research. K.V.T. conducts wastewater research at The University of Queensland, supported in part by the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program, funded by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the funding agency.

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Author notes

  1. Fahad Ahmed

    Present address: Emerging Contaminants, Treatment, Remediation & Research (ECTRR), ADE Consulting Group, Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Fahad Ahmed

  2. Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Tim Boogaerts, Alexander L. N. van Nuijs & Adrian Covaci

  3. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Devin A. Bowes

  4. Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia

    Wayne Hall & Kevin V. Thomas

  5. National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Wayne Hall & Jason P. Connor

  6. Discipline of Psychiatry, The University of Queensland, Herston, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Jason P. Connor

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  1. Fahad Ahmed
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  2. Tim Boogaerts
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fahad Ahmed.

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Nature Mental Health thanks Félix Hernández, Helena Rapp-Wright and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Ahmed, F., Boogaerts, T., Bowes, D.A. et al. Enhanced estimation of the prevalence of treated mental health disorders by wastewater-based epidemiology. Nat. Mental Health 2, 345–347 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-024-00222-4

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