Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry

The effects on the brain and social behavior might one day be reversible

For the first time, researchers have found evidence of a biological cause for the cognitive impairments caused by the disease

New mechanism for protecting nerve cells relevant for mental illness

Using an AI model, researchers have found a way to better understand the interaction between mental and metabolic disorders—and possibly predict metabolic issues at an early stage.

Not only neurons, but also oligodendrocytes are essential

Back in his student days, Peter Falkai wanted to explore the human mind. Once he became a scientist, he dedicated himself to researching a form of mental illness: schizophrenia. Falkai himself is at all times cool, calm, and collected. Since 2024, he has served as both Medical Director at the Research Clinic and Director at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich.

Digital tools promise to fill a gap that has been widening for years: too few therapy slots, too many people with mental health issues, too much time between sessions. Yet apps, wearables, and language models differ fundamentally in function, benefit, and risk. That’s why Max Planck researchers are working not only on new applications, but also on the criteria that should govern them: what works, and what’s safe?

Long before the first outward symptoms appear, mental illnesses often become apparent through subtle changes in the body. However, the clues that lurk hidden in medical examination data cannot be detected with conventional analyses. That is why Nikolaos Koutsouleris at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich is turning to artificial intelligence. Together with an international research team, he is developing a digital model of the human brain. The hope is that it will help identify mental illnesses earlier and treat them in a more targeted way.

When the human body is exposed to stress, it goes into the very same emergency mode that it used in the Stone Age. However, that reaction is not nearly as well suited to our way of life today. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences are studying what happens in the body during stress, who is particularly susceptible to stress, as well as when it is an especially bad time to have to deal with a large amount of stress.

People who run away screaming from tiny spiders are often ridiculed by their peers. But a pronounced fear of spiders is anything but funny if you’re the person affected. Florian Binder, a member of Victor Spoormaker’s research group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, is using virtual reality to gain a better understanding of anxiety disorders and to develop a standard therapy. The author tried it out on herself to find out how it works.

The skull shields our brain from injury – but it also complicates the study of brain diseases. Some pathological changes in the brain, however, leave their mark in the retina. Our research group is working to harness this insight to advance the study of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.

To date, there are no laboratory tests or biomarkers to diagnose depression; diagnosis is based on a clinical interview. This descriptive diagnosis says little about the biological causes and ignores the neurobiology of the symptoms. Pupillometry, a window into the brainstem, could help identify subtypes for personalized treatment. Apps for mobile pupillometric devices are now being tested and would pose easy-to-use solutions for the clinic.

Our research shows a correlation between higher levels of inflammation and depressive symptoms. In our study we identified immune-related depression subgroups using extensive AI analyses. Our findings highlight the complexity of immune involvement in depression and the importance of different molecular markers.

The neuropeptide corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) is a central regulator of the stress response. Alterations in the CRH system have repeatedly been observed in depressed patients. Our group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry identified CRH-related circuits shaping anxiety, arousal and locomotion. The detailed comprehension of CRH-dependent neural circuits is a prerequisite to establish the CRH system as a potential alternative therapeutic target beyond classical antidepressants.

The World Health Organization estimates that around 300 million people worldwide are affected by depression. Affective disorders represent one of the most significant causes for the loss of healthy life years and result in a reduced life expectancy compared to the general population. Psychotropic drugs approved for the treatment of depression do not result in disease improvement or even remission in all affected patients. The identification of specific biomarkers that provide each patient with the optimal drug would be an important milestone in personalized psychiatric medicine.