Characterizing geographic variation in major mental disorders (Preprint)
We used electronic health records from Caldas, Colombia to characterize geographic variation in major mental disorders.
We found a relationship of distance decay between travel time and the incidence for mild (outpatients) but not severe (inpatients) presentations of mental illness. We also found several hotspots of severe mental illness in the region. This is exciting, since each hotspot is a candidate for further research to identify genetic or environmental risk factors for severe mental illness.