MasterMind is the management of mental health disorders through advanced technology and services – telehealth for the MIND” The MastermMind Consortium to avoid dispersing efforts has narrowed the scope of the services to just one, non-organic, mental disorder: depression. This because of its high incidence, social cost and proven clinical effectiveness of ICT in its treatment.

MasterMind intends to implement at scale (almost 5.000 patient overall) evidence based computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (cCBT) services for depressed adults across 9 EU and Associated Countries, 6 of which participate through Authorised National Representatives, and from
this implementation: identify the barriers and success factors to implement cCBT on a large scale in different political, social, economic and technical health care contexts and from the perspective of different stakeholders such as patients, professionals and health insurances; recommend successful strategies for implementing cCBT in these different contexts/settings.

MasterMind further aims to Implement video conference enabled blended care for patients with depression treated in General Practice where the patient and GP have an interview with a specialist to support diagnosis, treatment planning, follow-up and education of both the patient and the GP. Using the lessons learnt, the Consortium will develop guidelines for promoting and facilitating the broader implementation across Europe of a safe, effective and efficient service supported by relevant stakeholders. The project will also explore the implementation of language and culture specific cCBT services for foreign citizens living in EU countries and will produce localised version of cCBT (4 in total) for countries non represented in the Consortium to prepare the roll-out of cCBT in other areas of the EU. The outcome of the service will be evaluated using a widespread HTA-based rigorous multi-dimensional evaluation methodology, MAST, already in use in other Pilots A. The Consortium provides a balanced mix between pioneer and early followers and between Nothern and Southern, Eastern and Western Europe.

Visit Website

CAPICE (Childhood and Adolescence Psychopathology) is a project unravelling the complex etiology by a large Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Europe), is a project funded by the European Commission under the HORIZON 2020 Research and Innovation programme, Marie SkÅ‚odowska Curie Actions – MSCA-ITN-2016 – Innovative Training Networks. In the Roadmap for Mental Health and Wellbeing Research in Europe (ROAMER), top-priority is research into child and adolescent mental health symptoms. CAPICE  will address this priority. This network will elaborate on the EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) consortium, a well-established collaboration of the many European birth and adolescent population based (twin and family) cohorts with unique longitudinal information on lifestyle, family environment, health, and emotional and behavioral problems.

Phenotypic and genome-wide genotypic data are available for over 60,000 children, in addition to genome-wide genotypes for over 20,000 mothers and epigenome-wide data for over 6,000 children. Combined with the enormous progress in methodology, the results of the research performed in this network will greatly expand our knowledge regarding the etiology of mental health symptoms in children and adolescents and shed light on possible targets for prevention and intervention, e.g. by drug target validation. Moreover, it will provide Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) with an excellent training in the psychiatric genomics field given by a multidisciplinary team of eminent scientists from the academic and non-academic sector highly experienced in e.g., gene-environment interaction and covariation analyses, (epi)genome-wide association studies, Mendelian Randomization (MR) and polygenic analyses. With a focus on common and debilitating problems in childhood and adolescence, including depression, anxiety and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, CAPICE will contribute to improving later outcomes of young people in European countries with child and adolescent psychopathology.

Contact Person / Email
c.m.middeldorp(at)vu.nl

Visit Website

E-COMPARED conducted comparative effectiveness research in routine specialised mental care settings on the (cost-) effectiveness of internet-based treatment for depression in comparison with standard care. Health care systems and policies and existing ICT infrastructures and their uptake will be taken into account.

E-COMPARED aims to evaluate EU mental health policies/guidelines for standard and internet-based care for depression in specialised care settings in countries with different health care systems and access levels of standard and internet-based care; compare clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of internet-based treatment and treatment as usual within controlled research settings; carry out pragmatic randomised controlled trials to study how internet-based depression treatment can be effectively implemented within routine specialised care settings; predict which patient groups could benefit from internet-based treatment vs. standard treatment by modeling patient characteristics; develop evidence based recommendations on how internet-based depression treatment can be cost-effectively integrated into routine specialised care systems for depression in EU mental health care systems, and develop a business case to ensure structural implementation of these services. E-COMPARED is multidisciplinary (psychology, HTA, ICT, care) and its members are leaders in internet-based treatment for common mental health disorders, e.g. through participating in FP7 projects (ICT4Depression, ROAMER)

Visit Website

ImpleMentAll is a European collaboration towards faster and more effective implementation of eHealth interventions. The project’s raison d’être is founded on the notion that implementation of new services and technologies is time-consuming and costly– and often fails completely – not least in the healthcare domain. Solidly based in research, and in a collaboration spanning from all corners of Europe to Australia, the project will construct its answer to this widespread problem. It's objectives is to develop a generic Integrated Theory-based Framework for Intervention Tailoring Strategies (the ItFits-toolkit) for data-driven tailored implementation of evidence-based eHealth services. It aims to demonstrate the impact of the ItFits toolkit on the implementation of eHealth for common mental disorders (iCBT) in 9 European countries (2 of which are Low and Middle Income Countries), and Australia. It aims to disseminate the validated toolkit in various healthcare contexts across Europe. ImpleMentAll is a true multidisciplinary, international collaboration that unites key experts in clinical practice, health, innovation, clinical research, and implementation science. The project consortium has been built with the aim of improving eHealth implementation in not only prosperous nations but all nations regardless of their economic status.

Visit Website

MooDFOOD is a Multi-country Collaborative project on the Role of Diet, Food-related behaviour, and Obesity in the prevention of Depression.
Depression is one of the most prevalent, severe and disabling disorders in the EU and places a heavy burden on individuals and families. A large proportion of the EU population is overweight which increases depression risk. Improving food-related behaviour and nutrient status offer opportunities to prevent depression, specifically for people prone to being overweight.

The MooDFOOD consortium combines expertise in nutrition, consumer behaviour, psychiatry and preventive psychology and uses a unique integrative approach. Existing high quality data of longitudinal prospective European cohort studies will be combined with new data from surveys, short-term experiments and a long-term preventive intervention study. This approach will provide insight in the causality of the link between diet and depression and underlying pathways, and will identify which modifications related to depression lead to beneficial dietary changes and lower the environmental burden of the diet.

Knowledge on all these aspects will be integrated and used to develop novel nutritional strategies to prevent depression. The MooDFOOD consortium aims 1) to gain a better understanding of the psychological, lifestyle and environmental pathways underlying the multi-faceted, bidirectional links of food intake, nutrient status, food-related behaviour and obesity with depression and 2) to develop and disseminate innovative evidence-based, feasible, effective and sustainable nutritional strategies for the prevention of clinical depression. In close collaboration with stakeholders and experts MooDFOOD will transform these nutritional strategies into guidelines and practical tools to guide policy at EU- and Member State levels. Promotion through extensive European networks will lower the risk of depression and contribute to overall health of all EU citizens.

Visit Website

SCHOOL FOR LEADERS OF SELF-HELP GROUPS was a program started in December 2001 in co-operation with “Public Initiatives on Psychiatry” (Russia) in a frame of the DFID’s Program “Health and Social Care Partnerships” (HSCP). Its goal was to provide necessary knowledge to people willing to establish and lead their own self-help groups. The project lasted two years. There were five tree-month courses, and about 40 persons graduated. The last course was arranged as a post-graduate one. Many of graduated lead their own groups, and the rest have strong intention to start groups in the nearest future. “Students” have got knowledge both in psychiatry and in a group work. The GAMIAN-Europe partners which are very skilled and experienced in this field, helped a lot. Sixteen students visited Oxford (in September 2002 and June 2003) where they had the very useful and encouraging training.

Visit Website

The European Parliament Interest Group on Mental Health, Wellbeing and Brain Disorders was set up in 2009 with the aim to advocate the development of sound EU policies which contribute to prevention of mental health problems and ensure good services, care and empowerment for those affected by mental health problems. The Group meets 3 times a year and these meetings provide an opportunity to advocate and underline the need for EU-level activities to take the field of mental health into account. The secretariat for this Group is being provided by GAMIAN-Europe. Co-chairs: MEPs Cristian Busoi, Nessa Childers, Marian Harkin, Jean Lambert and Tomas Zdechovsky.

Visit Website