Electrophysiology and Prediction in Psychiatry (PD Dr. S. Olbrich)

The mission of our research group is to improve the way we chose treatment options in psychiatric disorders in the 21st century. Up to now, within the field of psychiatry, therapy decisions have been guided mainly by the presentations of clinical symptoms and the experience of the psychiatrist or psychologist. Objective and reproduceable markers such as they can be provided by electrophysiological measurements and that are used commonly in other domains of medicine have not yet made their way into the clinical practise. However, there is an increasing evidence that brainwaves assessed via electroencephalogram and activity of the autonomous nervous system, as assessible via the electrocardiogram (ECG) may help to find individualized treatment options such as the right drug, the right stimulation technique or the best psychotherapy approach.

Our team and its work is dedicated to find electrophysiological biomarkers in mainly affective disorders, obsessive convulsive disorders, autism spectrum disorders or in diagnosis-independent symptoms such as suicidality that predict the probabilities for a positive treatment outcome for various treatment options. It is a main goal to transfer this knowledge into clinical usage.