Merete Nordentoft is an expert in epidemiology, suicidal behavior, psychopathology and a pioneer in early intervention in psychosis. She was PI for many large randomized clinical trials, evaluating the effect of psychosocial intervention, of which the Danish OPUS trial (specialized assertive intervention in first episode psychosis) is the most well known.
She has worked with suicide prevention at a national level since 1997. Together with a group of epidemiologist from Nordic countries, she has proved that life expectancy in schizophrenia is 15 to 20 years shorter than in the general population.
She is involved as one of the PI’s in iPSYCH, the Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, which aims at investigating genetic and environmental causes of mental disorders. The initiation of the large Danish High Risk and Resilience Study VIA 7, and the first follow-up wave VIA 11 are important parts of iPSYCH.
She was given the prestigious award “Global Excellence in Health” in 2012 and in 2016. She received the Richard Wyatt Award in 2016, The Marie and August Krogh Award in 2017, and The Danish Medical Association’s Honorific Award in 2018.
