Research on the development and consequences of common mental disorders focuses on early indicators of later psychiatric or somatic health problems, and examines how high-risk health trajectories develop and how they can be influenced so that suffering at a later date can be avoided. Major mental health domains include depression, anxiety, and functional somatic symptoms; which are among the disorders with the highest burden of disease worldwide. In addition, these mental health problems are assumed to play a central role in healthy ageing in a broader sense, both as (early) markers of latent health hazards (e.g., allostatic load), and as (co-)determinants of the onset and course of somatic disorders.