Research Program - Das Deutsche Zentrum für Psychische Gesundheit

Research Program

STRENGTHENING MENTAL HEALTH, REDUCING THE BURDEN OF MENTAL DISORDERS

The research program consists of three interconnected main research areas (domains) that build on each other:

  1. Risk and resilience in mental and physical health over the lifespan
  2. Innovative, individualized interventions
  3. Prevention, recovery, and participation in living environments

Main Research Area I (Head: Bochum, Munich) aims to improve the understanding of the causes and trajectories of mental disorders, comorbid physical illnesses as well as health-promoting processes that can mediate resilience and recovery from mental disorders.

Main Research Area II (Head: Tübingen, Jena) aims to optimize the practical benefit of research for patients by accelerating the translation of research findings through a close link between biopsychosocial research (Collaborative Research Center I) and development of more precise treatment methods.

Main Research Area III (Head: Berlin, Mannheim) completes the translation cycle and contributes to the transfer of targeted interventions based on individual trajectories to the living environment and, conversely, to the targeted treatment of individual trajectories taking into account the living environment.

The three main research areas each comprise three clusters that define the thematic framework for local and cross-location projects. In addition, three joint lighthouse projects will address particularly urgent research questions: Early Detection and Prevention, Urban Mental Health and Improved Psychotherapy. In the start-up phase of the DZPG, the focus is on "Early detection and prevention". In this lighthouse project, widely accessible prevention and early intervention tools are to be developed and implemented in healthcare practice.