About the PsychGen centre
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The PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health is an interdisciplinary research environment dedicated to advancing knowledge about mental health.
There is still much we do not know about the causes of mental health conditions and how to improve the outcomes for children, young people, and adults living with various conditions. PsychGen aims to increase our knowledge about how genes and environmental factors influence the development and progression of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions throughout the lifespan. Our goal is to build knowledge with potential to improve prevention, early intervention, and treatment strategies, and ultimately lead to improved mental health outcomes for individuals and communities.
The projects managed or associated with the center cover these topics:
- Understanding development of mental health problems in the general population
- The genetics of mental disorders like anxiety and depression
- Infection/immunity in mothers during pregnancy and ADHD in children
- Pandemic and post-pandemic mental health – risk and resilience in adolescents and adults
- Self-harm among young people
- Multimorbidity and co-occurrence
- Progression of mental illness: identifying predictors of recovery
- Sleep and fatigue
- Eating problems and disorders
- Postpartum depression
Collaboration
By bringing together experts from diverse fields, including genetics, epidemiology, psychology, and psychiatry, PsychGen takes an interdisciplinary approach to improve our understanding of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions. Through broad national and international collaborative efforts, we aim to establish strong networks, infrastructure and coordination between disciplines and across research groups, providing innovative solutions to complex mental health challenges.
Our closest national collaborator is the PaGE group at the Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, contributing to the development and everyday activities of PsychGen.
We also collaborate in several large international consortia, for example:
Research themes
PsychGen currently have four primary areas of research:
- The first area is to provide a nuanced and comprehensive description and understanding of the development of mental health conditions throughout life – in different life stages, socio-economic groups, and across genders, and how this relates to diagnoses and use of health care services.
- Secondly, we aim to identify causal risk factors, protective factors and resistance factors related to various mental health conditions, by coordinating internationally leading competence on advanced and innovative methods. Results from this area can provide valuable insights to inform the development of tailored interventions and treatments.
- The third area of emphasis is to use data and analysis resources in PsychGen, including new machine-learning methods to develop prediction models with great potential for clinical utility.
- The fourth area of emphasis is to ensure relevance and utility of the center's research questions and findings through user involvement, communication, and translation of prevention-relevant knowledge.
Public Health Context and Social Epidemiology
We examine the larger societal picture that shapes the landscape of neurodevelopment and mental health. Here, the focus is not just on the individual, but on the environment they're situated in: socio-economic conditions, prevailing health policies, cultural influences, and societal attitudes towards mental health.
Identification, course and consequences
In this theme, we carry out empirical work designed to investigate important features of how neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions are diagnosed, how they progress over time, and what consequences they have across the lifespan. For many neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, early identification affords greater opportunity for the implementation of support strategies or interventions. Describing the most common trajectories that these conditions take across development and the potential outcomes that follow can help individuals and their families, as well as clinicians, to mitigate challenges and maintain a high quality of life.
Co-occurrence, multimorbidity and transdiagnostic features
Many common neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions co-occur with one another, and also with other health conditions. In this theme, we research how and why different conditions overlap, investigating for diagnostic similarity, shared genetic components, and reciprocal causal relationships
Risk, resilience and optimal outcomes
Individuals with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions can experience a full range of life outcomes. In research for this theme, we investigate the factors associated with differential functioning among individuals with these conditions, seeking knowledge about the mechanisms that promote resilience and mitigate risk.
Within-family processes
Many neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions have a familial component. Because family members typically live together and share genetics, it can be difficult to disentangle the processes by which liability for these conditions is passed on. In this research theme, we apply state-of-the-art methodologies to data from families to try to understand what role specific environments and exposures have in the emergence of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, once shared genetic liabilities are accounted for.
PsychGen is involved in large international consortia on within-family transmission of mental health, including FAMILY and the Within Family Consortium.
Medications, Interventions, and Services
Here we focus on genetic epidemiology research that can inform the development or repurposing of interventions to prevent or reduce mental health problems, poor life quality and disability. For example, by identifying and validating genetic variants that serve as proxies for drug targets, we can gain insight into mechanism-based efficacy and adverse effects of drugs.