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

No. Project Participating research units
or co-workers
SP 3.1 Comprehensive out-patient quality management RG Quality Assurance in Psychiatry CP
SP 3.5 External quality assurance CP
SP 3.6 Inpatient quality management PM
SP 3.7 Financial analyses and qualityoriented
remuneration system
PM
SP 6.1 Treatment resistance/chronicity/suicidality in acute treatment and
in the 4-year follow-up of depressive disorders (basic study)
J. Cordes CP
SP 6.1 Comparison of systematic treatment algorithms with the standard
treatment of inpatients with unipolar depression
J. Cordes CP
PM = Project management, CP = Cooperation partner, RG = Research group
ReseaRch
Table 4: Research projects of the Competence Network on Depression and Suicidality with the participation of research units of the Department of Psychiatry
and Psychotherapy of the Heinrich-Heine University
der Ersatzkassen” in German]). In addition, the network is
funded by representatives of the pharmaceutical industry
(Pfizer, Promonta Lundbeck and Synthelabo).
Local research facilities participating in the
Competence Network
Within the context of its participation in the Competence
Network on Depression and Suicidality, the Department
of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy has taken over the role
of coordinating sub-project 3 “Quality Management in the
Treatment of Depression” (W. Gaebel), as well as taking
part in a total of six sub-projects. In most of these research
projects, the Department took part as the main applicant,
taking over leadership of the project in two of them (c. Table
4). The projects were successfully concluded in the reporting
period and were published in international medical journals
(v. reference list).
3.1.1.3 Competence Network on Dementia (FMER)
Centre directors: C. Luckhaus and T. Supprian (from 2005),
R. Ihl (until 2005)
Scientific assistants: B. Grass-Kapanke (until 2007),
I. Blaeser (until April 2008)
The work of the Department of Psychiatry and
Psychotherapy within the context of the Competence
Network on Dementia funded by the FMER started in 2003
and ended when the funding period expired at the end of
2008. The Division of Gerontopsychiatry was one of the 13
centres of the Competence Network. The network dealt
with the four main focuses of dementia research: early and
differential diagnosis, pharmacological and psychosocial
treatment, epidemiology and genetics, as well as aetiology
and pathogenesis. Within the clinical research topics, the
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy took part
in research on the pre- and early stages of dementia, as
well as gaining closer insights into the effectiveness of
pharmacological interventions in mild cognitive impairments
(MCI) und Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Included in the core
scientific focuses were the creation of cross-regional biodatabases,
which represent an important basis for research
into illness markers and genetic associations in the various
forms of dementia. The network cooperated with the
Institute for Radiology of the Heinrich-Heine University,
Düsseldorf (Director: U. Mödder)
3.1.1.4 DFG Priority Programme “Nicotine: Molecular
and Physiological Effects in the Central Nervous
System” (DFG)
Spokesperson: G. Winterer
This priority programme was set up by the DFG in 2006
to make a contribution to a better comprehension of the
central nervous system effects of nicotine. Funding was
made available by means of international assessment
procedures for 16 out of 50 submitted projects from basic
and clinical research (Table 5), essentially relating to the
following areas:
s The clinical characterisation (phenotyping) of large
multi-centre random samples of the general population
and neuropsychiatric patients in consideration of
the changes during nicotine withdrawal and the
determination of risk factors for relapse.
s Functional analysis of the physiological effects of
nicotine and nicotine withdrawal in the brain through
imaging and endocrinological investigations.
s The molecular-genetic principles of nicotine
dependence with a genome-wide multi-centre
association study.
Designated project directors from eleven institutions countrywide
were responsible for the 16 research projects, which were
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