Why research is so important in psychiatry
There is still a lot of unexplored territory in psychiatry. In order to be able to treat people individually, we need to know more. This is why we combine research and treatment under the same roof, thus directly benefiting our patients.
Research topics
Diagnosing a psychiatric illness is difficult. A psychiatrist relies solely on the statements of his or her patient. While an orthopaedic surgeon uses X-rays or a general practitioner checks the blood count, a psychiatrist lacks such diagnostics, which allow a clear statement to be made immediately. We are confident that there are biomarkers that will allow us to diagnose psychiatric disorders. As an example, we are investigating pupil movement as it could provide information about possible disorders.
Cerebral organoids mimic the development of our brain in early stages in a Petri dish.
We also try to understand the development of psychiatric diseases. Stress is an important factor that we investigate, since most psychiatric diseases are related to stress regulation. How does the brain, but also the whole body, deal with stress and why can it lead to disorders? What role do genes play? Are there so-called epigenetic changes caused by environmental factors?
We strive for a better, more individualized treatment of our patients. Ultimately, we hope to even prevent psychiatric illnesses from developing.
Participants for our biobank and for studies
We welcome and encourage all of our patients to participate in our studies and join our biobank. This allows us to obtain as much data as possible from which we can gain insights for more individualized treatment in the future. All we need is a blood sample. Any information you provide will be used for research purposes only. We store or archive all samples and data in accordance with the current EU data protection guidelines. We are always looking for participants to take part in our research studies. This includes both healthy individuals as well as people with psychiatric illness, including patients from our research hospital. Of course, we discuss with each individual in detail whether a research project is suitable for him or her.