The 2025 Journal of Health Monitoring article from RKI reports: "In 2024 an estimated 22% of adults had depressive symptoms (PHQ‑9 ≥ 10), 14% had anxiety symptoms (GAD‑7 ≥ 10)." It notes that the higher 2024 shares compared with previous years are largely attributable to a change in methods. The article focuses on symptom prevalence in survey data and does not present outpatient diagnosis prevalence as its main topic.

The 2025 basic data report of the German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN) summarizes: "In Germany, 27.8% of the adult population are affected by a mental illness each year. This corresponds to around 17.8 million affected persons, of whom only 18.9% make contact with treatment providers per year." It distinguishes between true disease prevalence and administrative/diagnosis prevalence, noting: "Because diagnoses are not always based on comprehensive psychiatric diagnostics, certain diagnoses are over‑ or under‑diagnosed and many affected people are not in treatment, the so‑called administrative prevalence does not correspond to the actual disease frequency." It reports that in 2023, 40.4% of statutory‑insured adults received a diagnosis of a mental disorder.

WHO notes that in many countries there has been a rise in contacts with mental health services, including outpatient services and telehealth. One of the reported drivers is increasing awareness and decreasing stigma around mental health, which can lead to more people seeking help who were previously untreated. WHO emphasises, however, that service use data capture help-seeking and treatment patterns, not solely the underlying incidence or prevalence of mental disorders.

This report finds: "Over the study period, the proportion of children and adolescents who received at least one diagnosis of a mental disorder per year rose from 23% in 2009 to 28% in 2017, which corresponds to an increase of 22%." It further states that in 2017, almost 26% of those under 18 received an outpatient diagnosis from the spectrum of mental disorders. The report discusses possible reasons including increased awareness, service use, and documentation practices, but does not highlight destigmatisation as a sole explanation.

RKI describes its Mental Health Surveillance (MHS) as providing "indicators of mental health of adults in Germany" in high frequency. The site notes that the MHS monitors symptoms such as depression and anxiety and tracks trends over time to inform public health, but it focuses on symptom surveillance rather than outpatient administrative diagnosis prevalence. The methodology emphasises representativeness and repeated measurement.

Recent surveys indicate that public stigma toward some mental health conditions has declined over the past two decades. Researchers have linked reductions in stigma with increased willingness to seek professional help, contributing to higher rates of reported diagnoses and treatment, particularly in outpatient settings. The article cautions that while destigmatisation likely plays a role, administrative and diagnostic trends also reflect changes in health systems and coding practices.

The study reports that approximately one-sixth of adults perceived a need for mental healthcare in the previous 12 months. The authors state that perceived need and help-seeking are influenced by factors including stigma, attitudes toward mental health treatment, and awareness of services. They note that reductions in stigma over time are associated with increased reporting of mental health problems and greater use of outpatient mental health services.

The presentation says that for young adults there is an increase in outpatient diagnoses of anxiety disorders and depression, with 'indications of changed handling of mental health in younger cohorts' and 'possibly less stigma of mental disorders.' This is consistent with the idea that reduced stigma may contribute to higher help-seeking and diagnosis rates.

This scoping review summarises developments in statutory health insurance-funded outpatient psychotherapeutic care for children and adolescents in Germany. The authors describe an increase in the number of children and adolescents receiving outpatient psychotherapy and discuss potential drivers, including greater public awareness and reduced stigma surrounding mental health. They highlight that rising administrative counts of diagnoses and treatments partly reflect higher utilisation of services rather than solely an increase in underlying disorder rates.

The page states that diagnosed and treated cases of mental illness have increased over the years and that many experts believe this is partly related to social destigmatization and de-tabooing, which has made people more willing to seek medical and psychotherapeutic help earlier and more often for psychological complaints.

Background knowledge: In 2025, the Robert Koch Institute updated its health reporting indicators on mental disorders, including a web-based indicator text and a short report on administrative prevalence in outpatient care. These documents explicitly mention that increased help-seeking, potentially driven by destigmatisation of mental illness, is one of the main explanations discussed for the observed rise in outpatient diagnosis prevalence, alongside other factors such as coding practices.

The fact sheet says that diagnosed cases of mental illness have increased over time and notes that, despite growing openness toward psychological distress, stigma remains a relevant issue. It also cites the RKI as a source for national context on mental health and care utilization.

The report places mental health more strongly in focus during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses regional mental-health monitoring. It is relevant background, but the available excerpt does not directly state the destigmatization explanation in the same explicit way as the RKI page.