Erik Mortensen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Erik Mortensen

Journal of Affective Disorders, Aug 1, 2018

Background: Early life cognitive ability (CA) might influence the risk of developing major depres... more Background: Early life cognitive ability (CA) might influence the risk of developing major depression (MD). The aim was to investigate the association between young adult CA and subsequent MD in relation to different MD disease characteristics. Methods: Information on CA was assessed at conscription board examinations 1957-1984 (mean age 19 years) and information on MD was based on hospital diagnosis retrieved from Danish Patient registers 1969-2015. Associations between CA and MD were examined using Cox regression analyses.

PLOS ONE

Background Many studies analyzing health effects of alcohol consumption have operationalized alco... more Background Many studies analyzing health effects of alcohol consumption have operationalized alcohol intake from a single baseline measure without further follow-up. Consequently, there is a lack of knowledge about stability and change in alcohol consumption over the life course and the social, psychological, lifestyle, and health characteristics associated with different alcohol consumption trajectories. Objectives The aims of the study were to describe the prevalence of different adult-life alcohol consumption trajectories among Danish men and to analyze social, psychological, lifestyle and health characteristics associated with these trajectories. Methods For 2510 Danish men, retrospective decade-based information on alcohol consumption during life period 26–60 years was obtained in late midlife and information on individual characteristics was obtained in young adulthood, late midlife and from national hospital registries. The men were allocated to one of six a priori defined al...

Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2020

Background Assortative mating is common in patients with mental disorders, both for specific diso... more Background Assortative mating is common in patients with mental disorders, both for specific disorders and across the spectrum of mental disorders. Assortative mating may play a key role in mental disorders because the person with the close relation to an individual with a mental disorder is also likely to have mental disorders, poorer cognitive abilities or lower social functioning, which may further intensify problems for both partners and their offspring. When one parent is ill, the care for the child will often depend on the other parent. Thus, assortative mating will most likely contribute to outcomes in the offspring. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate possible diagnoses of a mental illness, cognitive ability and social functioning in individuals who have biological children by partners with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Further, we also aimed to explore differences in polygenic risk scores derived from genome-wide association studies for schizophre...

Frontiers in Psychology, 2019

Disruptions in hot cognition, i.e., the processing of emotionally salient information, are preval... more Disruptions in hot cognition, i.e., the processing of emotionally salient information, are prevalent in most neuropsychiatric disorders and constitute a potential treatment target. EMOTICOM is the first comprehensive neuropsychological test battery developed specifically to assess hot cognition. The aim of the study was to validate and establish a Danish language version and reference data for the EMOTICOM test battery. To evaluate the psychometric properties of 11 EMOTICOM tasks, we collected data from 100 healthy Danish participants (50 males, 50 females) including retest data from 49 participants. We assessed test-retest reliability, floor and ceiling effects, taskintercorrelations, and correlations between task performance and relevant demographic and descriptive factors. We found that test-retest reliability varied from poor to excellent while some tasks exhibited floor or ceiling effects. Intercorrelations among EMOTICOM task outcomes were low, indicating that the tasks capture different cognitive constructs. EMOTICOM task performance was largely independent of age, sex, education, and IQ as well as current mood, personality, and self-reported motivation and diligence during task completion. Overall, many of the EMOTICOM tasks were found to be useful and objective measures of hot cognition although select tasks may benefit from modifications to avoid floor and ceiling effects in healthy individuals.

Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2018

Background: Negative symptoms are core to schizophrenia. Understanding the complex way specific s... more Background: Negative symptoms are core to schizophrenia. Understanding the complex way specific symptom profiles may affect cognition independent of a diagnosis of schizophrenia per se will allow for an improved understanding of the disorder, and specific subtypes as well as potential treatment targets therein. Methods: The neurocognitive profiles of 132 patients with schizophrenia/ schizoaffective disorder and 189 healthy controls were examined using the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery. Patients were grouped as either having a negative symptom profile or no negative symptoms using the PANSS. Healthy controls were grouped as high or low schizotypy on the negative symptom analogue subscale from the O-LIFE. Results: There was a significant effect of negative symptom profile on the processing speed domain, the participants with negative symptoms performed significantly worse than those with no negative symptoms, after controlling for premorbid IQ, F(1,129)=4.30, p<0.05. The same relationship with speed of processing was found when investigating high vs low schizotypal aspects of negative symptoms in an equivalent analysis of healthy controls, with those scoring highly on negative symptoms performing significantly worse, after premorbid IQ was controlled for, F(1,186)=6.24, p<0.05. Discussion: The processing speed domain seems significantly impacted by negative symptom profile in both schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. The speed of processing deficits does not seem to be presenting a bottom up influence on higher order cognitive tasks, as no group differences were observed on reasoning and problem solving tasks. In conclusion, these findings indicate that the negative symptom cluster contributes to this specific cognitive impairment independently of the disorder.

BJPsych Open, 2017

BackgroundStudies of the association between pre-deployment cognitive ability and post-deployment... more BackgroundStudies of the association between pre-deployment cognitive ability and post-deployment post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have shown mixed results.AimsTo study the inflence of pre-deployment cognitive ability on PTSD symptoms 6–8 months post-deployment in a large population while controlling for pre-deployment education and deployment-related variables.MethodStudy linking prospective pre-deployment conscription board data with post-deployment self-reported data in 9695 Danish Army personnel deployed to different war zones in 1997–2013. The association between pre-deployment cognitive ability and post-deployment PTSD was investigated using repeated-measure logistic regression models. Two models with cognitive ability score as the main exposure variable were created (model 1 and model 2). Model 1 was only adjusted for pre-deployment variables, while model 2 was adjusted for both pre-deployment and deployment-related variables.ResultsWhen including only variables recorded...

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2019

Purpose Evidence exists of an association between pre-morbid lower cognitive ability and higher r... more Purpose Evidence exists of an association between pre-morbid lower cognitive ability and higher risk of hospitalization for depressive disorder in civilian cohorts. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of cognitive ability at conscription with post-deployment depression and the influence of (1) baseline factors: age, gender, and pre-deployment educational level, (2) deployment-related factors: e.g., war-zone stress and social support, and (3) co-morbid PTSD. Methods An observational cohort study linking conscription board registry data with post-deployment self-report data. The study population consisted of Danish Army military personnel deployed to different war zones from 1997 to 2015. The association between cognitive ability at conscription and post-deployment depression was analyzed using repeated-measure logistic regression models. Results Study population totaled 9716 with a total of 13,371 deployments. Low-level cognitive ability at conscription was found to be weakly associated with post-deployment probable depression after adjustment for more important risk factors like gender, education, and deployment-related factors [odds ratio (OR) 0.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88-0.99]. The co-occurrence rate with PTSD was nearly 60%. When adding co-morbid PTSD as an independent variable, the association between cognitive ability and probable depression became insignificant, OR 0.95, CI 0.89-1.02. Conclusions Low cognitive ability at conscription is a risk factor for depression among returning military personnel, but unimportant compared to gender, education, and deployment-related factors. Part of this effect may be related to co-morbid PTSD. Use of cognitive ability score as an isolated selection tool cannot be recommended because of low predictive performance.

BMC Obesity, 2016

Background: To examine associations of Body mass Index (BMI) and mental distress in late midlife ... more Background: To examine associations of Body mass Index (BMI) and mental distress in late midlife in a large Danish community sample and to investigate the effect of socio-demographic factors. Methods: The study sample comprised 3613 Danish men and 1673 women aged 49-63 years from the Copenhagen Ageing and Midlife Biobank (CAMB) with complete information on measured BMI, severity of mental symptoms assessed by the Symptom Check-List' (SCL-90), and socio-demographic factors including sex, age, occupational social class, and educational duration. Linear and logistic regression were used to evaluate associations between BMI category and SCL-90. Results: Unadjusted SCL-90 subscale scores differed significantly across BMI categories (p < 0.001) among both men and women with more mental distress in the underweight, obese and severely obese BMI categories except for the anxiety scale which was not associated with BMI category in women. In the adjusted analyses, all symptom scales remained significantly associated with BMI among men after adjusting for socio-demographic factors while only associations with somatization and depression scales remained significant for women.. When SCL-90 case status was applied as an outcome, significant unadjusted associations with BMI category were observed for somatization (p < 0.001), depression (p = 0.026) and the General Severity Index (p = 0.002) among men and somatization (p = 0.002) among women. Furthermore, somatization case-status was significantly predicted by BMI category (p < 0.001) in men after adjusting for socio-demographic factors. Conclusion: Results indicate more mental distress among underweight, obese and severely obese men and women after adjusting for socio-demographic factors. Furthermore, obese men have higher risk of reporting clinically relevant symptoms of somatization independently of socio-demographic factors.

Nature and Science of Sleep, 2016

Previous studies have reported an association between circadian disturbances and age-related cogn... more Previous studies have reported an association between circadian disturbances and age-related cognitive impairment. The aim was to study the 24-hour profiles of melatonin and cortisol in relation to cognitive function in middle-aged male subjects. Fifty healthy middle-aged males born in 1953 were recruited from a population-based cohort based on previous cognitive assessments in young adulthood and late midlife. The sample included 24 cognitively high-functioning and 26 cognitively impaired participants. Saliva samples were collected every 4 hours over a 24-hour period and analyzed for cortisol and melatonin levels by immunoassay. All participants exhibited clear circadian rhythms of salivary melatonin and cortisol. Salivary melatonin concentrations had a nocturnal peak at approximately 4 am. The median nocturnal melatonin response at 4 am was significantly lower in the cognitively impaired group than in the high-functioning group (−4.6 pg/mL, 95% CI: −7.84, −1.36, P=0.006). The 24-hour mean melatonin concentration (high-functioning group: 4.80±0.70 pg/mL, vs cognitively impaired group: 4.81±0.76 pg/mL; P.0.05) (or the area under the curve, AUC) was not significantly different between the two groups. Cortisol levels were low during the night, and peaked at approximately 8 am. Median cortisol concentrations were similar at all times, as were the 24-hour mean cortisol concentrations and AUC. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first study to assess circadian measures (ie, melatonin and cortisol) in healthy middle-aged men with different cognitive trajectories in midlife. We found evidence of altered circadian rhythms with a reduced nocturnal melatonin response at 4 am in men with cognitive impairment. The 24-hour concentration and AUC of melatonin and cortisol were similar in the cognitively high-functioning group and in the cognitively impaired.

Pediatrics, Jan 6, 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between use of β-2-adrenergic receptor ... more The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between use of β-2-adrenergic receptor (B2AR) agonist drugs during pregnancy and risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A case-control study was conducted by using Denmark's health and population registers. Among children born between 1997 and 2006, 5200 cases with ASD admission diagnoses and 52 000 controls without ASD were identified and individually matched on month and year of birth. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (CI) for any B2AR agonist exposure during pregnancy, preconception, and by trimester. In total, 3.7% of cases and 2.9% of controls were exposed to B2ARs during pregnancy. Use of B2ARs during pregnancy was associated with increased risk of ASD, even after adjustment for maternal asthma and other covariates (OR: 1.3, 95% CI: 1.1-1.5). The elevated risk was observed with use of B2AR during preconception (OR: 1.3, 95% CI: 1.0-1.6), first ...

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 2010

In a search for viable endophenotypes of alcoholism, this longitudinal study attempted to identif... more In a search for viable endophenotypes of alcoholism, this longitudinal study attempted to identify premorbid predictors of alcohol dependence that also predicted the course of alcoholism. Method: The 202 male subjects who completed a 40-year follow-up were originally selected from a Danish birth cohort (N = 9,182). Two thirds of the subjects were high-risk biological sons of treated alcoholics. A large number of measures (361) were obtained at different periods before any subject had developed an alcohol-use disorder. At age 40, a psychiatrist provided mutually exclusive lifetime diagnoses of alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence that were characterized as currently active or currently in remission according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised, course specifi ers. Results: The majority of subjects with a diagnosis of alcohol abuse were in remission at age 40 compared with those with a diagnosis of alcohol dependence (88% vs. 58%). Treatment did not predict remission. Fourteen of the 18 predictors of remission that also predicted dependence were submitted to an exploratory factor analysis (varimax). Two premorbid dimensions were identifi ed: cognitive effi ciency and early behavioral dyscontrol in childhood. Both factors predicted the failure to remit (low cognitive effi ciency and high behavioral dyscontrol) even when lifetime alcoholism severity was controlled. Conclusions: This 4-decade study found a striking disconnect between measures that predicted alcohol dependence and measures that predicted remission from alcohol dependence. Reduced cognitive effi ciency and increased behavioral dyscontrol may be basic to gaining a fuller understanding of the etiology of alcoholism. (J. Stud.

Journal of personality disorders, Aug 25, 2015

DSM-5 offers an alternative model of personality pathology that includes 25 traits. Although pers... more DSM-5 offers an alternative model of personality pathology that includes 25 traits. Although personality disorders are mostly treated with psychotherapy, the correspondence between DSM-5 traits and concepts in evidence-based psychotherapy has not yet been evaluated adequately. Suitably, schema therapy was developed for treating personality disorders, and it has achieved promising evidence. The authors examined associations between DSM-5 traits and schema therapy constructs in a mixed sample of 662 adults, including 312 clinical participants. Associations were investigated in terms of factor loadings and regression coefficients in relation to five domains, followed by specific correlations among all constructs. The results indicated conceptually coherent associations, and 15 of 25 traits were strongly related to relevant schema therapy constructs. Conclusively, DSM-5 traits may be considered expressions of schema therapy constructs, which psychotherapists might take advantage of in t...

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 2011

A large Danish birth cohort was used to test the independent and joint effects of perinatal measu... more A large Danish birth cohort was used to test the independent and joint effects of perinatal measures associated with premature birth as predictors of the development of alcoholism in male and female subjects. Method: Subjects were born at the Copenhagen University Hospital between 1959 and 1961 (N = 9,125). A comprehensive series of measures was obtained for each of the 8,109 surviving and eligible infants before birth, during birth, shortly after birth, and at 1 year. The adult alcoholism outcome was defi ned as any ICD-10 F10 diagnosis (Mental and behavioral disorders due to alcohol use) or an equivalent ICD-8 diagnosis found in the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register or the Municipal Alcohol Clinics of Copenhagen by 2007. Results: Multiple perinatal markers of premature birth independently predicted the development of an alcoholism diagnosis in male (n = 310) but not female (n = 138) subjects. Logistic regression modeling with a global prematurity score, adjusted for social status, maternal smoking, and gender, indicated a signifi cant association of prematurity score for males (p < .02), but not females (p = .51), on the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder. Conclusions: The results suggest that neurodevelopmental sequelae of premature birth are associated with gender-specifi c effects on the development of alcoholism in the male baby: small, premature, or growth-delayed male babies appear to be selectively vulnerable to alcoholic drinking years later. The fi ndings implicate neurodevelopmental infl uences in alcoholism pathophysiology in males and suggest the possibility of distinct, gender-specifi c pathways in the etiology of severe problem drinking.

Neuropsychopharmacology, 2009

Life stress is a robust risk factor for later development of mood disorders, particularly for ind... more Life stress is a robust risk factor for later development of mood disorders, particularly for individuals at familial risk. Likewise, scoring high on the personality trait neuroticism is associated with an increased risk for mood disorders. Neuroticism partly reflects stress vulnerability and is positively correlated to frontolimbic serotonin 2A (5-HT 2A) receptor binding. Here, we investigate whether neuroticism interacts with familial risk in relation to frontolimbic 5-HT 2A receptor binding. Twenty-one healthy twins with a co-twin history of mood disorder and 16 healthy twins without a co-twin history of mood disorder were included. They answered self-report personality questionnaires and underwent [ 18 F]altanserin positron emission tomography. We found a significant interaction between neuroticism and familial risk in predicting the frontolimbic 5-HT 2A receptor binding (p ¼ 0.026) in an analysis adjusting for age and body mass index. Within the high-risk group only, neuroticism and frontolimbic 5-HT 2A receptor binding was positively associated (p ¼ 0.0037). In conclusion, our data indicate that familial risk and neuroticism interact in their relation to frontolimbic 5-HT 2A receptor binding. These findings point at a plausible neurobiological link between genetic and personality risk factors and vulnerability to developing mood disorders. It contributes to our understanding of why some people at high risk develop mood disorders while others do not. We speculate that an increased stress reactivity in individuals at high familial risk for mood disorders might enhance the effect of neuroticism in shaping the impact of potential environmental stress and thereby influence serotonergic neurotransmission.

Nordic Psychology, 2007

Page 1. ARTICLE Nordic Psychology, 2007, 59 (4) 332-346 Group therapy with OCD development and ... more Page 1. ARTICLE Nordic Psychology, 2007, 59 (4) 332-346 Group therapy with OCD development and outcome of diagnosis specific treatment of patients with OCD in groups MORTEN MUNTHE FENGER ERIK LYKKE MORTENSEN JULIA RASMUSSEN MARIANNE LAU ...

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Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2002

Pennington, 1991) who pass second-order tests of theory of mind, although they share the social a... more Pennington, 1991) who pass second-order tests of theory of mind, although they share the social and communicative symptoms of autism. Second-order theory-of-mind tests demand that the participant reasons about what one person thinks about another person's thoughts (Perner & Wimmer, 1985; Baron-Cohen, 1989

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2005

Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 2019

ObjectiveAssociations of amount of alcohol intake and beverage type with the risk of delirium tre... more ObjectiveAssociations of amount of alcohol intake and beverage type with the risk of delirium tremens (DT) have not been studied. This longitudinal study investigated if the average number of drinks per day and beverage type predict DT.MethodsA cohort of 3 582 alcohol‐dependent men and women aged 19–82 without previous DT were interviewed about alcohol intake and beverage type at baseline in 1994–2005 and followed through record linkage in Danish nationwide registers to identify incident DT. Data were analyzed by means of Cox regression models.ResultsAn average number of drinks per day of 20–30 or >30 was associated with hazard ratios (HRs) of 1.38 (95% CI 1.03–1.84) and 1.64 (95% CI 1.19–2.27) relative to the reference category (1–9 drinks). Independently of amount consumed and covariates (age, gender, civil status and work status), beverage type (spirits vs. mixed alcohol) was associated with a HR of 1.63 (95% CI 1.08–2.46). Male gender was robustly associated with increased ri...

Schizophrenia Research, Dec 1, 2016

Motor abnormalities have been established as a core aspect of psychosis-spectrum disorders, with ... more Motor abnormalities have been established as a core aspect of psychosis-spectrum disorders, with numerous studies identifying deficits prior to clinical symptom presentation. Additional research is needed to pinpoint standardized motor assessments associated with psychosis-spectrum disorders prior to illness onset to enhance prediction and understanding of etiology. With a long history of findings among people with diagnosable psychosis-spectrum disorders, but little research conducted during the premorbid phase, pegboard tasks are a viable and understudied measure of premorbid for psychosis motor functioning. In the current study, examining data from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort, the Simultaneous Pegs Test was performed with children (n = 244, aged 10–13) at genetic high risk for psychosis (n = 94) and controls (n = 150). Findings suggest that children who eventually developed a psychosis-spectrum disorder (n = 33) were less likely to successfully complete the task within time limit relative to controls (χ2 (2, N = 244) = 6.94, p = 0.03, ϕ = 0.17). Additionally, children who eventually developed a psychosis-spectrum disorder took significantly longer to complete the task relative to controls (χ2 (2, N = 244) = 7.06, p = 0.03, ϕ = 0.17). As pegboard performance is thought to tap both diffuse and specific brain networks, findings suggest that pegboard tests may be useful premorbid measures of motor functioning among those on a trajectory towards a psychosis-spectrum disorder.

Trials, 2013

Background: Sufficient evidence is lacking to draw final conclusions on the efficiency of medical... more Background: Sufficient evidence is lacking to draw final conclusions on the efficiency of medical and psychological treatments of traumatized refugees with PTSD. The pharmacological treatments of choice today for post-traumatic stress disorder are antidepressants from the subgroup selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, especially Sertraline. The evidence for the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the treatment of complex post-traumatic stress disorder in traumatized refugees is very limited. Venlafaxine is a dual-action antidepressant that works on several pathways in the brain. It influences areas in the brain which are responsible for the enhanced anxiety and hyper-arousal experienced by traumatized refugees and which some studies have found to be enlarged among patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Design: This study will include approximately 150 patients, randomized into two different groups treated with either Sertraline or Venlafaxine. Patients in both groups will receive the same manual-based cognitive behavioral therapy, which has been especially adapted to this group of patients. The treatment period will be 6 to 7 months. The trial endpoints will be post-traumatic stress disorder and depressive symptoms and social functioning, all measured on validated ratings scales. Furthermore the study will examine the relation between a psycho-social resources and treatment outcome based on 15 different possible outcome predictors. Discussion: This study is expected to bring forward new knowledge on treatment and clinical evaluation of traumatized refugees and the results are expected to be used in reference programs and clinical guidelines. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01569685