Research
Currently, our department is involved in several ongoing research and development projects. We monitor the occurrence of mental disorders and public mental health at the population level. A special priority is monitoring the mental health of adolescents.
In addition to general monitoring, our department studies also single syndromes. By means of structural and functional brain study, our research projects focus on the causes of psychoses as well as on depression and other mental disorders. Mood disorders are characterized by intensive mood changes, the most common of which are various types of depression.
Since the 1980s, our department has been developing national prevention programmes to promote mental health. Our research has also uncovered new information about factors controlling mood and behavior. This information has been obtained, for example, by studying healthy individuals and twins.
Alcohol research has shed light on the factors related to substance dependency and its development. Disorders in the gratification system of the brain appear to have a crucial role in the development of dependency on any substance. Additionally, the access to substances appears to contribute to the development of dependency, together with general societal factors.
The new drug level definition methods developed by our department, as well as research on substance abuse therapies, have enhanced the treatment of various types of substance dependency. Furthermore, our department studies alcohol-induced health hazards, traffic behavior, drug abuse and doping.
 |