LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf Hospital of the Heinrich-Heine University ...

LVR-KLINIKUM DÜsseLDORF – hOsPITaL OF The heINRIch-heINe UNIVeRsITY DÜsseLDORF
3.1 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
3.1.1 Research Networks
During the reporting period, the LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf
was a member or at the head of several countrywide or
regional research networks. Worthy of specific mention here
are the “Competence Networks in Medicine” which, since
1999, have been funded by the German Federal Ministry for
Education and Research (FMER) to improve cooperation
between the leading research institutions in specific research
areas (horizontal networking) and those providing routine
care (vertical networking) for individual clinical pictures
across all fields of medicine. The programme is designed
to make a contribution to improving the treatment of people
with clinical pictures characterised by high morbidity and/or
mortality rates. The Competence Network on Schizophrenia
was one of the (initially nine, now eighteen) federally-funded,
countrywide competence networks. The network was
essentially the brainchild of the Department of Psychiatry
and Psychotherapy of the Heinrich-Heine University, LVR-
Klinikum Düsseldorf, together with the Department of
Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the Ludwig-Maximilian
University, Munich (H.-J. Möller) and, since its start in 1999,
has been coordinated by the Network Headquarters at the
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, LVR-Klinikum.
The spokesperson for the competence network is W. Gaebel.
In addition, the LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf has also been linked
with research projects within the Competence Networks on
Depression and Suicidality and has participated in projects of
the Competence Network on Dementia. In close collaboration
with the Competence Network programme, the FMER has
set up other associated research funding programmes, in
which the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
takes part. This allowed, for instance, corresponding brain
banks from different Competence Networks to be pooled
into a cross-illness brain bank that can be used as a
reference centre for CNS disorders (BrainNet), with which
the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy is linked
as an Associate Satellite Centre. In order to work on joint
legal, organisational and technical solutions to problems
simultaneously facing a number of research associations, the
FMER set up the Telematics Platform for Medical Research
Networks (TMF e. V.), which has since taken the legal form
of a registered non-profit association. The Competence
Network on Schizophrenia is, amongst others, a member of
this “umbrella association” of medical research networks and
together with other neuropsychiatric competence networks
has attracted project funding for the creation of interfaces
for exchanging data between clinical documentation systems
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from the TMF. Finally, when the second funding period for
the Competence Network on Schizophrenia ended in 2005, a
countrywide research network for “Psychotherapy in Positive
Symptoms” (POSITIVE) was set up, which was conceived and
initiated by the Tübingen University Hospital (S. Klingberg
and G. Buchkremer) in close collaboration with cooperation
partners from the Competence Network on Schizophrenia,
including the network headquarters, and which has been
coordinated by colleagues from Tübingen since its approval in
2006. The Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy is an
active participant in almost all of these research association
projects. In the area of dependence and basic research, the
DFG Priority Programme 1226 “Nicotine: Molecular and
Physiological Effects on the Central Nervous System” has
been coordinated since 2006 at the LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf
with G. Winterer as the spokesperson. He initiated the
programme, has contributed various projects and has
participated in other projects. The objective of these partially
multi-site projects was the elucidation of the moleculargenetic
principles of the effects of nicotine and nicotine
dependence, as well as the neurobiological and clinical
effects of nicotine. Moreover, the LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf
was part of the Dependence Research Network North Rhine-
Westphalia, initially conceived and managed by the LVR-
Klinikum Essen. The LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf contributed
an own multi-centre project to this network and assumed its
leadership in 2006.
3.1.1.1 Competence Network on Schizophrenia (FMER)
Spokesperson: W. Gaebel
Network Headquarters: W. Wölwer, V. Toeller (from 2005),
L. Freimüller (from 2008), S.-K. Schultheis (2005–2007),
T. Ferrari (2003–2006), A. Weßling (until 2005)
The Competence Network’s objectives
The main concern of the Competence Network on
Schizophrenia is the creation of scientific prerequisites for
the optimisation of the prevention, acute and long-term
treatment, and the rehabilitation of schizophrenic disorders.
Contributions will be made to the following concrete
objectives by means of practice-related and networked
research projects and measures for health education: