Mental Health in Danish Domestic and International Adoptees as Young Adults

This study examines psychiatric contacts and a range of psychiatric disorders among domestic and international adoptees in Denmark using register data on all non-kin adoptees from the birth cohorts of 1989–1994 (N=3.180) and their non-adopted peers (N=418,272). The odds of an adoptee having a psychiatric contact before the age of 20 is more than double that of their non-adopted peers, and adoptees also have higher rates of psychiatric disorders. Moreover, this study demonstrates considerable heterogeneity among non-kin adoptees in terms of their likelihood to have psychiatric contact.