Advanced Medical Scientist-Programm 2021

Thema: "Long-term consequences of early life trauma: multimodal imaging investigation of the underlying neurobiology in health and in mood disorders"

Zusammenfassung:
Early life trauma constitutes a major risk factor for mood psychopathology, and the effects on a eveloping brain have potent consequences on mental and physical health later in life. Individuals that have experienced early trauma, and later developed mood disorder, additionally have an increased risk for psychiatric and other comorbidities, such as trauma disorders, worsening of clinical course, and treatment resistance. This study proposes three complementary aims to investigate the effects of early trauma on the neurobiological and psychosocial architecture, clinical and diagnostic features in mood disorders, and treatment response to a novel ketamine medication. In the first aim, with the help of multimodal imaging, association between early life trauma, neurometabolites, connectivity and stress task will be investigated in healthy controls to establish a potential vulnerability for mood disorder development. In the second aim, individuals with mood disorders will undergo detailed imaging, diagnostic, and clinical phenotyping to investigate unique features of participants with both mood disorders and history of early trauma. Third aim will examine the effects of early trauma on treatment response to ketamine. Special attention will be given to gender as a moderating factor as it is strongly associated with prevalence rates of both early trauma and mood disorders.