The need for a behavioural science focus in research on mental health and mental disorders

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Hans-Ulrich Wittchen
  • Susanne Knappe
  • Gerhard Andersson
  • Ricardo Araya
  • Rosa M Banos Rivera
  • Michael Barkham
  • Per Bech
  • Tom Beckers
  • Thomas Berger
  • Matthias Berking
  • Carmen Berrocal
  • Christina Botella
  • Per Carlbring
  • Guy Chouinard
  • Francesc Colom
  • Pim Cujipers
  • Daniel David
  • Paul M G Emmelkamp
  • Cecilia A Essau
  • Giovanni A Fava
  • Thomas Goschke
  • Dirk Hermans
  • Stefan G Hofmann
  • Wolfgang Lutz
  • Peter Muris
  • Thomas H Ollendick
  • Filip Raes
  • Winfried Rief
  • Heleen Riper
  • Eliana Tossani
  • Saskia van der Oord
  • Bram Vervliet
  • Josep M Haro
  • Gunter Schumann

Psychology as a science offers an enormous diversity of theories, principles, and methodological approaches to understand mental health, abnormal functions and behaviours and mental disorders. A selected overview of the scope, current topics as well as strength and gaps in Psychological Science may help to depict the advances needed to inform future research agendas specifically on mental health and mental disorders. From an integrative psychological perspective, most maladaptive health behaviours and mental disorders can be conceptualized as the result of developmental dysfunctions of psychological functions and processes as well as neurobiological and genetic processes that interact with the environment. The paper presents and discusses an integrative translational model, linking basic and experimental research with clinical research as well as population-based prospective-longitudinal studies. This model provides a conceptual framework to identify how individual vulnerabilities interact with environment over time, and promote critical behaviours that might act as proximal risk factors for ill-health and mental disorders. Within the models framework, such improved knowledge is also expected to better delineate targeted preventive and therapeutic interventions that prevent further escalation in early stages before the full disorder and further complications thereof develop. In contrast to conventional "personalized medicine" that typically targets individual (genetic) variation of patients who already have developed a disease to improve medical treatment, the proposed framework model, linked to a concerted funding programme of the "Science of Behaviour Change", carries the promise of improved diagnosis, treatment and prevention of health-risk behaviour constellations as well as mental disorders.

Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research
Volume23 Suppl 1
Pages (from-to)28-40
Number of pages13
ISSN1049-8931
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2014

    Research areas

  • Behavioral Sciences, Health Services Needs and Demand, Humans, Mental Disorders, Mental Health, Translational Medical Research

ID: 138226413