[Are mental disorders increasing? Update of a systematic review on repeated cross-sectional studies].

BACKGROUND: Throughout the western world, an increasing demand for psychiatric services is reported. However, a systematic review published in 2008 came to the conclusion that there is no sufficient evidence for increasing mental disorders in the recent decades.
METHODS: A systematic review on studies with repeating cross-sectional surveys in the general population, published since 2008, was conducted.
RESULTS: 33 study results were included into the review. The majority of publications did not report increasing mental health problems in the general population.
CONCLUSION: The increasing demand for psychiatric services is not associated with increasing mental disorders in the general population. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.