Child and adolescent psychiatry, psychosomatics and psychotherapy

Research projects

GePass - Representation of a TransGender identity using a "GenderPassport" paradigm

Principal investigator: Dr. Carolin Ligges
Since 2019

This project is intended to pilot and test a new diagnostic and psychoeducational tool for children and adolescents who identify as TransGender. Children and adolescents who identify as transgender should be supported in the process of finding their preferred gender identity through the creation of a "GenderPassport", with which they can visually and acoustically represent their preferred gender identity.

Development of a standardized handover system for care in a child psychiatric ward

Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Florian D. Zepf

Error-free and undisturbed handover of important patient information is an important aspect of high-quality inpatient work. Simply reading a handover report cannot replace the necessary professional exchange between nurses and other professional groups. A verbal, time-limited and structured handover, which is oriented towards defined goals, is recommended.

In this project, patient-related and non-patient-related disturbances in the handover situations from one nursing shift to the next are recorded and quantified in order to be eliminated in perspective in future handover situations.

Impact of prenatal stress on brain ageing

Principal investigator: Dr. Carolin Ligges
Collaboration with: apl. Prof. Dr. Matthias Schwab, Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Schleußner, apl. Prof. Dr. Dirk Hoyer, Dr. Heike Hoyer
seit 2007

The aim of this project is to assess the effects of prenatal glucocorticoid exposure on the stress reactivity of the HHN axis and the ANS, as well as the cognitive and psychomotor development of school-entry age children whose mothers have been treated with betamethasone one or more times as part of successful preterm birth treatment in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy.

Selected publications

Runions, K. C., Morandini, H. A. E., Rao, P., Wong, J. W. Y., Kolla, N. J., Pace, G., Mahfouda, S., Hildebrandt, C. S., Stewart, R., Zepf, F. D. (2019). Serotonin and aggressive behaviour in children and adolescents: a systematic review. Acta Psychiatr Scand, 139(2), 117-144. doi: 10.1111/acps.12986
Mahfouda, Simone, Panos, Christina, Whitehouse, Andrew J.O., Thomas, Cati S., Maybery, Murray, Strauss, Penelope, Zepf, Florian D., O’Donovan, Amanda, van Hall, Hans-Willem, Saunders, Liz A., Moore, Julia K., Lin, Ashleigh. (2019). Mental Health Correlates of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Gender Diverse Young People: Evidence from a Specialised Child and Adolescent Gender Clinic in Australia. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 8(10), 1503.
Königschulte, E., Civai, C., Hildebrand, P., Gaber, T. J., Fink, G. R. & F. D. Zepf (2019): Effects of serotonin depletion and dopamine depletion on bimodal divided attention, The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, DOI: 10.1080/15622975.2018.1532110
Zepf FD, Bubenzer-Busch S, Runions KC, Rao P, Wong JWY, Mahfouda S, Morandini HAE, Stewart RM, Moore JK, Biskup CS, Eickhoff SB, Fink GR, Langner R. Functional connectivity of the vigilant-attention network in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Brain Cogn. 2019 Apr;131:56-65. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2017.10.005. Epub 2017 Nov 14. PubMed PMID: 29150311; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6432906.
Morandini, HAE, Silk, TJ, Griffiths, K, Rao, P, Hood, S & Zepf, FD (2020). Meta-analysis of the neural correlates of vigilant attention in children and adolescents. Cortex. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.08.008