Analysis of data from many thousands of participants may reveal the fundamental principles of interindividual differences. © IRStone/stock.adobe.com

What influences the treatment expectations of an individual patient? Genes, hormones, stress?

Project Z02
Team

Whether and how positive or negative expectations influence the outcome of treatment varies considerably between patients. This central research project analyses the data of 2800 patients and healthy participants from 14 collaborative research centre projects. The objective is to improve understanding of the complex links between them and establish the importance of psychological factors such as anxiety, stress and depression as well as hormones, neuroendocrine messengers and the individual genome for these individual differences. The results will give indications as to how patient expectations are influenced and treatment can be personalised and optimised.

Central research project: higher-level psychometrics and neuroendocrine assessment

This central research project provides uniform, standardised psychometric tools for the measurement of anxiety, stress and negative affect in all collaborative research centre projects. In parallel with the psychometric measurements, it will investigate whether and to what extent treatment expectations are influenced by the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympathetic nervous system by analysing the awakening response of cortisol and alpha-amylase activity in saliva. Together these findings will enable us to comment on possible psychological and neuroendocrine predictors that influence the treatment expectations and outcomes of patients.