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Disentangling psychological interventions for mental disorders into a taxonomy of active ingredients

Project description

Uncovering active ingredients of psychological interventions for severe mental disorders

Psychological interventions for severe mental disorders are generally effective treatment options combined with other interventions, but crucial aspects related to mechanisms and personalization are still unexplored. The complexity of cases such as psychotic, bipolar, substance use, eating and borderline personality requires knowledge of mechanisms of change and a more individualised approach, beyond the application of one-size-fit-all treatment packages. By decomposing psychological treatment packages and integrating diverse components in a cross-disorder, comprehensive taxonomy, the EU-funded DECOMPOSE project aims to radically reevaluate effectiveness and personalization from a radically different vantage point of active ingredients. The final goal is to create an open clinical decision support system, where users can 'assemble' and 'dismantle' interventions, visualising gain or loss of treatment effectiveness.

Objective

Severe mental disorders, like psychotic or borderline personality are associated with higher mortality, both all-cause and by suicide. Psychological interventions, usually combined with other treatments, are effective options, though less so than for common mental disorders. However, mechanisms and predictors of treatment response, key for improving effectiveness and for precision medicine, are mostly unknown. The greatest barrier is our approach to psychological interventions as “brands” or categories, without knowledge of active ingredients, and particularly of which ingredients are effective. The proposal will bridge this gap by dismantling psychological interventions into components, integrating these into a taxonomy, and radically reevaluating treatment efficacy and personalization from a novel perspective: components instead of brands and categories. We will use recent network meta-analyses to assemble a large collection of psychological interventions for severe mental disorders (psychotic, bipolar, substance use, eating and borderline personality). We will retrieve intervention protocols and extract components iteratively, via multiple rounds of independent coding. We will integrate components in a cross-disorder, comprehensive taxonomy, validated in Delphi surveys and a consensus meeting. We will reevaluate psychological interventions for severe disorders through component network meta-analysis, to identify the most beneficial ingredients and combinations, for symptoms, functioning and attrition outcomes. We will reassess treatment personalization through a component-based lens using individual patient data for psychosis. Finally, we will develop an open clinical decision support system, where users can “assemble” and “dismantle” interventions, visualizing efficacy gain or loss. The proposal is a systematic and reproducible approach to advance a perspective shift from treatment “brands” to active ingredients, potentially upending psychotherapy research.

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 497 500,00
Address
VIA 8 FEBBRAIO 2
35122 PADOVA
Italy

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Region
Nord-Est Veneto Padova
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 497 500,00

Beneficiaries (2)

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