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Researcher

Violette Coppens

  • Research Expertise:1) Inflammation in severe mental illnesses Within CAPRI - SINAPS the research focus lays on the role of inflammation in the onset and course of psychiatric disorders - primarily psychotic, personality and mood disorders; this at the patient level (clinical research). More specifically, we seek to assess: 1.a) the role of the inflammatory kynurenine pathway at different levels - Fundamental research: how does the circadian rhythm of pathway metabolites occur in patients with severe mental illness (SMI) and does it run differently in healthy individuals? - Correlation with symptoms: are aberrations in this pathway correlated with fluctuations in symptom severity? - Is this pathway affected by neuromodulation (electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS))? 1.b) Interplay psychiatry - COVID-19 With the outbreak of COVID-19, it quickly became apparent that there was an increase in psychiatric symptoms. We therefore investigate(d) ° the seroprevalence of COV19 in all psychiatric patients admitted to UPC Duffel during the 1st wave and the relationship with kynurenine metabolites ° the influence of vaccination status on symptom severity in patients and controls ° The prevalence of psychiatric symptoms in patients on treatment for Long-COVID 1.c) The added value of anti-inflammatory add-on medication in depressed patients with elevated inflammatory profile (multinational RCT in 200 patients) 2) Neuromodulation techniques (specifically: electroconvulsive therapy and transcranial magnetic stimulation) - Investigating the underlying mechanisms of action of these still relatively unknown treatment modalities: ° Fundamental: search for new, still unknown mechanisms of action of ECT by means of proteome analysis ° Does ECT have an effect on increased inflammation in EPA? ° Can inflammatory substances (kynurenine metabolites and cytokines) act as biomarkers of successful treatment for ECT and rTMS? - Optimization of ECT application: ° Efficacy of maintenance ECT in depression ° Determining the best electrode placement (highest efficacy + least side effects) 3) The role of cognitive coping strategies (brooding and dampening) in symptom severity in emotion dysregulation (depression and borderline personality disorder): ° Retrospective ePD correlation study: is the degree of dampening correlated with symptom severity in depressed patients? ° Clinical trial investigating whether psychotherapy specifically focused on dampening can reduce the degree of symptoms in patients with emotion dysregulation (depression and borderline personality disorder)
  • Keywords:PSYCHIATRY, NEUROPSYCHIATRY, IMMUNOPSYCHIATRY, PSYCHIATRIC DISEASES, MOOD, MAJOR DEPRESSION, PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS, ANTIDEPRESSANT DRUGS, Medicine
  • Disciplines:Bioinformatics and computational biology, Diagnostics, Endocrinology and metabolic diseases, Immunology, Laboratory medicine, Medical biochemistry and metabolism, Medical imaging and therapy, Medical systems biology, Microbiology, Molecular and cell biology, Neurosciences, Physiology, Psychiatry and psychotherapy, Other basic sciences, Biomechanics, Biophysics, Cardiac and vascular medicine, Gastro-enterology and hepatology, Gerontology and geriatrics, Hematology, Morphological sciences, Other medical and health sciences
  • Research techniques:- Designing, preparing and conducting a randomized clinical trial - Sample collection and processing (peripheral blood, urine, sputum,...) - Experimental lab analyses such as all kinds of immunoassays, LCMS,... - Dissection and sample preparation of human brain tissue for subsequent examination - IHC and microscopy - Laboratory animal research (rodents)
  • Users of research expertise:° Academic research groups ° Industrial sponsors of clinical trials such as the pharmaceutical industry