Explanation, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders

What are the causes of mental disorders and how can we prevent or treat them best? Over the past decades, we have learned that most mental disorders cannot be explained by one single factor, but rather by several factors interacting with each other.

We study many disorders in our department, including but not limited to: emotional disorders (depression, anxiety, eating disorder), trauma-related disorders, psychotic disorders (schizophrenia), developmental disorders (ADHD, autism), neurological disorders (dementia, Parkinson’s), and perceptual disorders.

What are the causal pathways leading to mental disorders? How many people actually have a mental disorder? And don’t we all have our strengths and peculiarities? Are pathologies always bad? Also see our ‘Explore Psychology Yourself' section for this topic.

Treatments are evaluated and improved, for example, by offering additional e-health training for children with anxiety disorders. In addition, computerised tests are studied for their use in clinical assessment, e.g. whether patients can drive safely, how firefighters can be protected from developing trauma-related disorders, and whether a violent offender can safely be released from prison.

Involved research units: Clinical- and Developmental Neuropsychology, Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, Developmental Psychology, Environmental Psychology, Organisational Psychology, Social Psychology, Theory and History of Psychology.

Involved master tracks: Clinical Forensic Psychology and Victomology, Clinical Neuropsychology, Clinical Psychology, Developmental Psychology (in Dutch), Reflecting on Psychology, Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychology, Research master Behavioural and Social Sciences (domain: Deficits, Distress, and Disorders),