The value of ‘mega cohorts’ for psychiatric research

Figures & data

Figure 1. The relation between depth of phenotype characterisation and number of diseases or research areas that are in the focus of a study.

Figure 2. Two different approaches to prioritise phenotype depth in large population studies.

Table 1. Method of administration and components of the examination program in the research area of psychiatric diseases in the German National Cohort (NAKO) baseline examination 2014–2019, according to the standard and extended programs (L1 and L2).

Administration and components	Standard program (L1)	Extended program (L2)
1. Face-to-face interview
Lifetime physician diagnosis and treatment status last 12 months:
Depression	X	X
Anxiety	X	X
Panic disorder	X	X
Screening for Major Depression (M.I.N.I.5.0)	X	X
Structured interview Major Depression (M.I.N.I.5.0)	–	X
Subjective memory complaints	X	X
2. Self-reports (Touch screen)
Depressive symptoms (PHQ-9)	X	X
Anxiety symptoms (GAD-7)	X	X
Perceived stress symptoms (PHQ-Stress)	X	X
Childhood Trauma Screener (CTS-5)	X	X
Big-5 Personality items (BFI-S)	X	X
Social network	X	X
Instrumental activities daily living (60 y+)	X	X
3. Neuropsychological test battery
Memory domain
Immediate and delayed recall (12 nouns)	X	X
Executive function domain
Animal names	X	X
Stroop Test	X	X
Digit span backward	X	X
Mixed motor + attention domain
Perdue Peg board (both hands)	–	X
Fluid intelligence (Touch screen)
Number Series Test	–	X
4. Magnetic resonance imaging
3D-T1	–	X
FLAIR	–	X
Resting State	–	X