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

LVR-KLINIKUM DÜsseLDORF – hOsPITaL OF The heINRIch-heINe UNIVeRsITY DÜsseLDORF
3.1.3 Research groups
3.1.3.1 Classification of mental disorders
Director: W. Gaebel
Scientific coworker: J. Zielasek
The international classification systems of mental
disorders are currently being revised. The aim of this
project is to identify new scientific knowledge which could
possibly be of interest to the revisions and to assess its
significance for the classification of mental disorders. The
research group on the classification of mental disorders
has undertaken this work for the German Association for
Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (Deutsche Gesellschaft
für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Nervenheilkunde,
DGPPN). The research group has been in existence since
autumn 2007. W. Gaebel is a member of the Mental Health
Topic Advisory Group of the World Health Organization
(WHO), which advises the WHO on the revision of the
international classification system ICD-10, the ICD-11, which
is currently being developed. In this context, the research
group constructed – for the Global Scientific Partnership
Network of the WHO (Chair: Prof. Dr. N. Sartorius,
Geneva) – a questionnaire for an international survey. In
collaboration with the DGPPN, the research group used this
questionnaire in 2008 to survey psychiatrists in Germanspeaking
countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
on their opinions on the need for a revision of the ICD-10
chapter on mental illnesses. In addition, a group of Germanspeaking
experts was formed for questions on the revision
of psychiatric classification systems, and in collaboration
with the WHO a systematic review of the German-language
literature was started to collect German-language
publications that may be relevant for the revision process.
For the GSPN group, an international working session was
organised and coordinated in Berlin within the framework of
the DGPPN annual congress in 2008. In addition, W. Gaebel
has been a member since 2008 of the Psychosis Workgroup
of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which advises
the APA on the revision of the classification of psychotic
disorders.
National cooperation partners
DGPPN, German Institute for Medical Documentation and
Information (DIMDI, Cologne)
International cooperation partners
Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, WHO
(Geneva); American Psychiatric Association (Arlington, USA);
Section on Schizophrenia, World Psychiatric Association.
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Modular psychiatry
Director: W. Gaebel
Scientific coworkers: J. Brinkmeyer, W. Wölwer, J. Zielasek
Within the context of the classification of mental disorders,
this research group further developed the concept of
orientating classification systems of mental disorders to the
neurobiological foundations of the disorders. To this end,
this project aims to identify physiological brain modules,
which are first to be identified and then studied with
regard to their characteristics in mental disorders. Having
determined the conceptual foundations of this approach,
which were published in international journals, the research
group is currently preparing empirical investigations of the
concept of modular psychiatry using magnetic resonance
imaging and EEG.
Frame analysis of psychiatric classification texts
Director: J. Zielasek
Scientific assistants: I. Girgin, J. Weiland, S. Jungbluth
Cooperation partner: Institute of Linguistics, Heinrich-Heine
University, Düsseldorf (W. Löbner)
Resource funding: Humanities and Medical Scientific
Research Centre, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf
This project originated from the shared interest of
the working group, the Institute of Linguistics and the
Philosophical Institute of the Heinrich-Heine University
Düsseldorf in the further development of the concepts of
the classification of mental disorders. On the basis of L.
Barsalou´s Frame Theory, the research group investigates
in an interdisciplinary research approach whether Frame
Theory can be used to identify and analyse concepts of
the representation of mental disorders in psychiatric
classification texts. To this end, both texts of the current
classification systems for mental disorders (ICD-10, DSM-
IV) and historical texts (Kraepelin, Bleuler, Schneider)
were analysed in close cooperation with the Institute of
the History of Medicine (H. Fangerau, now Ulm, Germany).
Currently, the group is working on questions of the notation
of frame structures, as well as on the use of process
analytical procedures and the inclusion of neurobiological
fundamentals of psychopathological phenomena in Frame
analysis.