Research Focus

Psychiatry

Area of Research

At the ECANL (Experimental Cognitive Affective Neuroscience Lab) we investigate mechanisms of depression disease and its treatments with the aim of improving treatments. Currently, we focus on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as a highly efficacious but not fully understood method. We are establishing a multicentre digital database of treatment parameters and outcomes. We use EEG to characterize the therapeutic seizure and polysomnography to reveal the association between sleep and ECT, and stool samples to investigate the effect of ECT on the gut microbiome.

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National Collaborations
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International Collaborations
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• Reconsolidation and electroconvulsive therapy
• Establishing a database to allow modern complex data collection and analysis for an optimized and personalized electroconvulsive therapy in depression
• Happy brain – Happy bacteria? The effect of electroconvulsive therapy on gut bacteria
• Sleeping Yourself to Happiness? The Effect of Electroconvulsive Therapy on Sleep
• The Anatomy of Therapeutic Seizures – The Inner Workings of Electroconvulsive Therapy (submitted)