Our Mission

Mental health disorder are a major problem for the public health related to immense financial costs, societal burden and associated challenges to the health care system. Mental disorders are generally not discrete entities but are characterized by high psychiatric comorbidity. Disorders associated with reward stimulus processing (such as alcoholabuse disorder, major depression, schizophrenia and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) have high comorbid relationships with each other.  

One goal is to identify clusters in behavioral symptoms and neurobiological patterns by capturing neural networks using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and linking them to genetic variation and behavioral changes characteristic for these disorders. 

WHY THIS SAMPLE? 

Most psychiatric disorders are identified and treated too late. Most mental illnesses, including affective disorders and substance abuse, have their highest incidence in the 20s and 30s of the lifespan. Approximately 50% of psycholpathological distress across the lifespan can be located in adolescence and 75% in the second decade (Kessler et al., 2017).  Because this is such an important developmental period, symptomology may be more apparent. Therefore, the STRATIFY project aims to identify broadly applicable biological markers that predict the development or remission of psychopathology early and enable targeted interventions in adolescence and early adulthood.