Today’s big topic: Danes’ consumption of ADHD medication sets new record
What’s happening?
There was one question that a number of experts found difficult to answer when Politiken presented figures last fall showing that the use of ADHD medication among adults has exploded in recent years. The question was how the number of prescriptions would develop in the future.
We can now reveal a part of the information. In all of 2024, there were 133,000 people who received medication for ADHD. Now the Danish Health Data Authority has a number that covers all of 2025, except for December. During the 11 months, 157,000 Danes redeemed a prescription for medication for ADHD. When accounting for the missing data from December, the growth in the past year was approximately 20 percent.
Why it matters!
The sharply rising curve over the past decade has led psychiatrists and general practitioners to talk about potential overdiagnosis and overmedication. Now, Minister of the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde wants to explore the possibilities of creating more cohesive treatment options across the country, which also include non-medication treatments:
»Not everyone has a positive effect from medical treatment, and many can learn to manage their ADHD without taking medication. Therefore, it is also important that the treatment is based on the individual’s needs«, writes Løhde.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Trump: We will discuss Greenland at the World Economic Forum in Davos
The American president, Donald Trump, says that the USA will discuss purchasing Greenland at the World Economic Forum, currently taking place in Davos, Switzerland. This is reported by the news agency Reuters.
»We have to have it. They have to have this done. They can’t protect it. Denmark, they’re wonderful people, and I know the leaders – they’re very good people, but they don’t even go there«, said Donald Trump on Monday.
The president also reiterated that NATO has warned Denmark about a Russian threat to Greenland for 20 years, without Denmark taking any action regarding the threat.
– North American military aircraft arriving soon in Greenland
A military aircraft from the joint American-Canadian air defense command (Norad) will soon arrive at the U.S. military base Pituffik Space Base in Greenland.
Norad wrote on X: »Along with aircraft operating from bases in the continental United States and Canada, they will support various long-planned NORAD activities, building on the enduring defense cooperation between the United States and Canada, as well as the Kingdom of Denmark. This activity has been coordinated with the Kingdom of Denmark«.
– W to challenge X: European organization launches new social media
Soon, millions of Europeans may have a European alternative to Elon Musk’s increasingly controversial social media platform, X. This comes with the new social media platform W, which is being launched amid the most serious crisis in American-European relations since World War II. The new platform W will require identification and photo validation to ensure that its participants are both human and who they claim to be.
The initiative is supported by an advisory board that, in addition to former ministers and business people primarily from Sweden, also includes one of the initiators of the so-called Eurostack initiative, Italian-British economist Cristina Caffarra.
Talk of town: Will the EU target American jeans and whiskey?
Monday, Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen (V) and Greenland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vivian Motzfeldt, met with the EU’s foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, and NATO’s Secretary General, Mark Rutte.
The intensity of meetings is high in the EU. On Monday, Eurogroup ministers discussed Trump’s tariff threats, and on Thursday evening, EU heads of state and government are summoned to a crisis meeting.
Thursday was not chosen randomly. Today, Donald Trump lands in Europe and gives a speech at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss alpine town of Davos – and no one knows what he plans to say. That can then be assessed together on Thursday.
Several sources have indicated that if Trump goes ahead with his punitive tariffs, the EU is ready to retaliate. One response could be something the EU already prepared last year: A package of punitive tariffs against a wide range of American products such as jeans and whiskey worth 93 billion euros. EU capitals have also begun discussing the possibility of using the EU’s so-called bazooka. It is a trade weapon that has not been used before.
Curious to know more? Read the full article here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.