Today’s big topic: Psychiatrists given the same information reached different diagnoses every other time
What’s happening?
When two psychiatrists have exactly the same information about a person’s mental health problems, in nearly every other case they will disagree about what kind of mental illness the person is suffering from, a new Danish study finds.
»We show that there is a real problem with the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses, and that is obviously not a pleasant message for our field. But if we don’t dare to examine it and talk openly about the problem, it won’t get solved. And we won’t get any better at diagnosing«, the professor behind the study, Julie Nordgaard, says.
The researchers behind the study used nine patient vignettes representing different mental illnesses in adults. A total of 1,038 psychiatric physicians from 19 countries in Europe and South America took part, and each physician was asked to assess two of the nine patient vignettes and make a diagnosis based on the symptoms described. The result is surprising. In the study, the physicians agreed on the diagnosis in only 55 percent of cases, despite having the exact same patient description.
Why it matters!
Although the disagreements in the study concerned the more complex disorders with multiple core symptoms occurring at the same time, it is nonetheless problematic that physicians arrive at different diagnoses, because they matter for treatment, research, society’s allocation of support, and the patient’s own self-understanding, Julie Nordgaard says.
She says that in everyday practice, physicians often see diagnoses change when patients are transferred between hospitals, because different departments and physicians focus on different things.
»It often surprises the patient, who thinks he has illness A, but then we say illness B. That doesn’t necessarily mean the first diagnosis was wrong, but it simply illustrates that our diagnostic process involves interpretation, and that different psychiatrists can arrive at different assessments of the same clinical picture«.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– E-scooters have been involved in nearly 700 accidents over six years
E-scooters have been involved in 692 recorded accidents in Denmark since 2020. 121 people have been seriously injured, and one person has lost their life. That is shown by figures from the Danish Road Directorate obtained by the insurance company Alm. Brand, according to the news agency Ritzau.
From 2020 through 2025, 218 personal injury accidents and 474 property damage accidents involving e-scooters have been recorded. According to Alm. Brand, the figures show that there is still a need for a strong focus on e-scooter safety.
– Apartment prices are now dropping in Copenhagen
After several years of sharp price increases in Copenhagen’s apartment market, a shift has recently taken place. New figures from the Danish housing portal Boligsiden show that the average sale price for an owner-occupied apartment in the capital fell by 0.5 percent from July to August, according to the news agency Ritzau.
The shift does not come as a surprise to Birgit Daetz, a housing economist at Boligsiden. »Fewer apartments are being sold, supply is growing quickly, more apartments are being reduced in price, and it is taking a little longer to sell them«, she says.
– Majority on Copenhagen City Council wants to strip politician Sikandar Siddique of his seat
A majority of the parties at Copenhagen City Hall plan to vote in favor of stripping Free Greens political leader Sikandar Siddique of his seat on the Copenhagen City Council, according to the Danish political news site Altinget, which has spoken with the Red-Green Alliance, the Conservative People’s Party, Denmark’s Liberal Party, and the Social Democrats.
On Wednesday, Sikandar Siddique told the newspaper Ekstra Bladet that he had lost a long-running housing dispute with the City of Copenhagen. In February, the City of Copenhagen decided to cancel Sikandar Siddique’s registered address in the municipality. At the time, he said he would appeal the decision to the Ministry of Digitalization. But that appeal has now been lost, Sikandar Siddique tells Ekstra Bladet.
Talk of town: There Marius Borg Høiby stood. A tall, blond thorn in the side of Norway’s self-image
Marius Borg Høiby attended King Harald’s funeral service at Oslo Cathedral on Wednesday and was one of the eight people who carried the king’s coffin.
Norway is mourning. On Wednesday, Norwegian King Harald was buried. A king of the people. A deeply loved, caring father of the nation and a unifying force who appealed to the best in his country’s children and wanted to embrace everyone.
More than 200,000 people lined Oslo’s streets for the procession that followed the coffin to Oslo Cathedral, where the funeral was held. Marius Borg Høiby – Queen Mette-Marit’s 29-year-old son, who in June was sentenced to four years in prison for two rapes, psychological and physical intimate-partner violence, and for filming women without consent – did not join the procession. But he loomed large in the images from the funeral itself. A tall, blond thorn in the side of Norway’s self-image. Marius Borg Høiby has pleaded not guilty to most of the charges, including the rapes, and has appealed the verdict.
In the Norwegian media, grief is being given priority over criticism, according to the Danish newspaper Berlingske’s royal correspondent, Jakob Steen Olsen. »In Norway, they won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. Only in passing have they noted that he was there as well«, he said on the Danish radio program on Radio IIII called ’Det, vi taler om’ (What we talk about, ed.).
Still curious? 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.