Project Details
Projekt
Neurobiological mechanisms of the environment-plasticity-behavior interaction
Applicant
Professor Dr. Claus Normann
Subject Area
Biological Psychiatry
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 543596885
Depression is a serious mental health condition that affects how a person feels, thinks and behaves. People who are depressed often feel persistently sad, empty, or hopeless. Depressed patients lose interest in activities they once enjoyed, can be unable to work and often withdraw from social contacts. In severe cases, they even feel an urge to kill themselves. Depression is very common and affects more than one in ten people during their life, females twice as often as males. Depression can be treated with psychotherapy and medication; however, it is unclear how antidepressants work in the brain. In this research project, we examine the role of brain plasticity in the development and treatment of depression. Brain plasticity means that connections between nerve cells and different areas in the brain can be strengthened, weakened or reorganized in response to experiences, learning or environmental changes. Research has found that in depressed patients, brain plasticity is generally weaker than in healthy people; and that antidepressants increase brain plasticity. However, this might not always be good. If people are treated with antidepressants while living in very negative conditions (e.g. are poor, have conflicts in their family or have suffered serious trauma), medication might be not effective. It is therefore important to know how exactly the environment or the living conditions influence plasticity in the brain; and how antidepressants work to enhance brain plasticity. With this knowledge, it might be possible to predict how patients with depression should be treated. For example, in some patients, it might be better to increase plasticity by medication, whereas in others, the negative living conditions should be targeted first. Another long-term goal of our research, based on this knowledge, is to develop new antidepressant treatments, which have fewer side effects and work better than the existing drugs. In this research project, an international group of researchers examines healthy and depressed humans, animals and nerve cells to improve the treatment of depressed patients and to prevent that depression affects so many people.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain
