Identifying causal risk factors for health is crucial as these form potential targets for prevention and treatment. However, causal inference is challenging, particularly to identify risk factors for poor mental health. To obtain more reliable causal evidence, triangulation is becoming increasingly popular. Triangulation involves using several different research approaches in unison to answer a complex causal question. By synthesizing multiple sources, it is assumed that the overall evidence for causality and the estimated causal effect are more reliable.

As a cross-institutional interdisciplinary research team working in the field of behavioral/psychiatric epidemiology, we (Jorien Treur, Robyn Wootton, Margot van de Weijer) have extensive experience with epidemiological and genetic causal inference methods and combining these in triangulation studies. Based on our collective experience, triangulation can have different interpretations depending on the (sub)field, and there are many unknowns around how different findings can be compared and integrated. We will organize this expert meeting so that we can obtain insights on causality and triangulation from a diverse group of experts, with the goal of improving causal inference for mental health.

This is an invitation-only event.