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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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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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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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-024-00222-4