Stress and Mental Health (EuroSTRESS)

Repetitive and uncontrollable stress is known to be a powerful risk factor for mental disorders. Whether an individual will respond adaptively or maladaptively to a stressor is defined by his/her genetics, developmental history and the environment in adulthood. In particular traumatic experiences in early life, notably neglect or abuse during childhood, could considerably add to the risk of subsequent psychiatric illnesses including major depression, psychosis and post traumatic stress disorder. The societal and economic burden of these stress-related illnesses is enormous. Hence it is of great importance to come to a better understanding of these influences of stress on mental health.

The EUROCORES programme EuroSTRESS will focus on two important questions through an interdisciplinary aproach:

•  How can early life experience and genetic background in concert evoke lasting changes in signalling pathways within the brain, resulting in altered behaviour and increased vulnerability to negative effects of stress in adulthood?

•  How can periods of repetitive stress or traumatic events in adulthood (against a background of life history and genetic vulnerability) disrupt brain function such that the chances on precipitation of specific psychiatric disorders are increased?

Full proposals have been reviewed by an experts panel on 4 December 2007 to rank proposals and recommend top proposals for funding.  

Programme Structure and Management

The programme is overseen by a Management Committee formed by one representative of each of the participating funding organisations and the EUROCORES Programme Coordinator in Medical Sciences. The Assistant to the EUROCORES Programme provides support to the Management Committee and attends the meetings.

An independent international Review Panel formed of leading experts in the field, with a mandate from the funding agencies, oversaw the scientific aspects of the programme.

ESF will support networking activities expected to facilitate communication between the different projects, leading to an effective exchange of information and dissemination of results.  To this aim, scientific workshops, conferences, symposia and training courses will be organised during the programme’s lifetime.  Web-based resources will also be developed to support the exchange of technical and scientific information and expertise, and to promote effective collaborations with other European researchers working in the field.

Networking and coordination of the EUROCORES Programmes are currently funded through the European Commission Sixth Framework Programme, under contract n° ERAS-CT-2003-980409