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Research building

Innovative Treatment and Mechanisms societal relevance
We strive to understand the mechanisms behind brain disorders like psychosis, and use this knowledge to accurately predict mental health crisis, which opens a window of opportunity to prevent such crisis. We also design and test innovative treatments which are better tailored to individual needs. Our main strengths are:

Language in Psychosis

Speech and language are a rich source of information about the mental and cognitive state of the speaker. We investigate if and how automated speech analyses can help improve diagnose, treatment monitoring and relapse prediction in patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders. At the national level, we collaborate with Parnassia Rotterdam and at the international level, this work is supported by two EU grants together with experts from Zurich, Barcelona and TrØmsØ.

The center for CNC leads TRUSTING project - Pitch Silvia

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Nutritional psychiatry

The gut and its microbiome play essential roles in brain health, especially in the first 1000 days, but also in adult age. Our group has created the Brain Anti-inflammatory Nutrition, which we have validated for efficacy and feasibility in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders. We have studied the effects of probiotic mixtures on brain and mental health and relate metabolic syndrome to cognitive and clinical outcomes.

Toon Scheurink about the relationship between gut bacteria and antipsychotic medication

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Prof. dr. I.E.C. Sommer en A.W. Scheurink, MSc (UMCG) "De bacterie en het brein"

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Women’s Mental health

Historically, medicine has better studied the male than the female body and many treatments are not well adapted to serve female needs through different life-stages. Our work includes the adaptation of current pharmacotherapy to make treatments safer and more effective for women. We investigate effects of menopause on mental health and perform treatment trials with hormonal and non-hormonal interventions to improve mental health and cognition for female patients.

Anne Jetske about the female brain and how dopamine is affected by hormonal fluctuations

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Tapering of antipsychotic medication

We have performed the HAMLETT trial, comparing early tapering of antipsychotic medication to maintenance treatment in a large group of first episode patients. Participants of this trial are followed for ten years, and we investigate how outcome after a first psychosis can be optimized. This study is performed together with 26 Dutch psychosis centers, united in the HAMLETT consortium. At the international level we have founded the TAPER consortium (add link to Taper) with a growing number of other groups that study tapering of antipsychotic medication.