NCCR-Synapsy

The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases

Two blood markers for schizophrenia

A research team from Synapsy has shown that the severity of the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia is strongly linked to blood biomarkers related to the deregulation of neuronal mitochondria. Psychotic symptoms are a characteristic clinical manifestation of schizophrenia. They go Read more…


Using high-density EEG source imaging to detect subcortical electrophysiological activity

Ch-Michel EEG

256-channel scalp EEG and source imaging Subcortical neuronal activity is important in mediating communication in large-scale brain networks. While EEG recordings provide appropriate temporal resolution and coverage to study whole brain dynamics, the feasibility to detect subcortical signals is unclear. Read more…


Link between childhood trauma and symptoms of psychosis

trauma during childhood

Two teams from the CHUV Department of Psychiatry are publishing results indicating the important role of antioxidants in preventing the harmful consequences of childhood trauma in psychosis. The team of Prof. Kim Do, Director of the Centre for Psychiatric Neurosciences Read more…


Antioxidants to heal the brain in psychosis?

Boosting the brain

The Centre for Psychiatric Neuroscience and the CHUV-Department of General Psychiatry have just published the results of a study suggesting the protective effects of antioxidant treatment on the brains of young adults suffering from psychosis. For several years, the Centre Read more…


An innovating treatment of psychosis based on biomarkers

schizophrenia illustration

Two units of the Department of Psychiatry, in partnership with the Harvard Medical School, have tried innovative treatment in patients who have recently developed psychosis. Their results were published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin. The Schizophrenia Research Unit of the Read more…


Philippe Conus elected Vice President of IEPA

Philippe Conus IEPA

Philippe Conus, ordinary professor at the FBM-UNIL and head of the General Psychiatry Department of the CHUV, has been elected vice-president for Europe of the IEPA-Early Intervention in Mental Health, an international scientific society that aims to promote early intervention Read more…


Philippe Conus : “The unexpected plays a part in jazz as it does in psychiatry”

Philippe Conus

As he receives the Alphen Award for his global clinical approach, Philippe Conus tells Synapsy about the rich and novel path that led him to psychiatry. Between music and psychiatry Philippe Conus dreamt of a career as a jazz clarinetist Read more…


Kim Do : “Knowledge frees mental illness from stigma”

Kim Do SIRS-award

Kim Do receiving the 2018 SIRS Outstanding Basic Science Award, and Professor René Kahn. Kim Do has devoted most of her career to understanding the origins, effects and potential opportunities linked to an observation she made in patients suffering from Read more…


Early psychoses

Coronal, sagittal and axial views

NAC improves fornix integrity in parallel to the increase of brain glutathione and cognition improvement. 6-month longitudinal gFA changes : NAC vs Placebo. Coronal, sagittal and axial views show voxel-wise analysis results indicating location (body of the fornix) of time Read more…