The Research Department of Arkin and the Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC, collaborate to better understand, prevent, and treat psychiatric disorders, and invest in mental health of individuals and families.
Part of our clinical research is embedded within five academic collaborative centres at Arkin: Addiction, Family Mental Health, Psychotic Disorder, Prevention and Forensic Psychiatry. In these academic centres clinicians and researchers closely collaborate in innovative research projects which help improve the quality and efficiency in clinical practice.
Research website Arkin (in Dutch): https://onderzoek.arkin.nl/
The Academic Collaborative Center Addiction
PI Anneke Goudriaan
The Amsterdam Institute for Addiction Research (AIAR) is the research institute of the Academic Workplace Addiction of Arkin/Jellinek. It collaborates with Amsterdam UMC, Department of Psychiatry, as well as various other universities and institutions. AIAR’s knowledge network focuses on innovation, research, and implementation in addiction care. At AIAR, innovation and clinical practice go hand in hand to disseminate knowledge on addiction both nationally and internationally. Our mission is clear: to conduct pioneering research and to bridge the gap between innovative research methodologies and clinical practice. Our four research lines are dedicated to improving care and expanding knowledge; 1) Addiction prevention: This research line involves close collaboration with Jellinek Prevention, 2) Digitalization: We investigate digital health and AI as a response to workforce shortages and strive for advanced digital solutions, 3) Addiction target groups and comorbidity: Through close cooperation with other Academic Workplaces within Arkin, we focus on understanding and treating complex psychiatric morbidity, 4) Treatment and aftercare: This line contributes to providing the most effective treatment for every patient.
Academic Collaborative Center Family Mental Health
PI Christel Middeldorp
In 2023, Arkin, Levvel, and the Department of Psychiatry Amsterdam UMC launched the Academic Collaborative Center Family Mental Health (GEZIeN). This Academic Collaborative Center targets 1) implementation of evidence-based family-focused practice, 2) the development and testing of mental health care meeting the needs of individual family members and families as a whole including integrated care for families with both a child and a parent affected with mental health problems, 3) knowledge dissemination, and 4) identifying which interventions are effective for whom based on clinical, family and genetic factors.
Academic Collaborative Center Psychotic Disorders
PI Lieuwe de Haan
The Academic Collaborative Center Psychotic Disorders is a collaboration of Amsterdam UMC and Arkin. Patients with psychotic disorders loose connection with others and society. Our research needs to be instrumental in restoring this connection. We focus on three groups of psychotic patients; A) high risk and early psychosis patients, B) outpatients with a psychotic disorder and C) patients with severe mental illness who require intensive care. We conduct research into a variety of topics such as medication, psychotherapeutic interventions, treatment-resistance, social functioning, housing and recovery. The academic centre is embedded in Mentrum, part of Arkin which specializes in the treatment of severe psychiatric disorders. It provides outpatient, inpatient, and crisis care, focusing on individuals with complex mental health needs who require intensive and specialized support.
Academic Collaborative Center Shift Left
PI Claudi Bockting
The Academic Collaborative Center Shift Left is a Mental Health Innovation Lab that focuses on prevention, early treatment and relapse prevention in mental health problems and disorders (such as anxiety, depression, suicidality). ‘Shift Left’ refers to an approach from ICT, where testing, evaluation and development are started very early in the process. The goal of Shift Left is to make processes as efficient as possible by innovating intake procedures, treatment matching and interventions. We apply this principle in this Academic Collaborative Center in order to provide efficient help to people with mental health problems, mental conditions and caregivers. We aim to develop alternative intake procedures and innovate and test brief interventions. This includes interventions that can be deployed promptly in the mental health care (such as with people on the mental health care waiting list), but also in GP practices and in the social domain. This Mental Health Innovation Lab Arkin focuses, among other things, on personalized E-health for treatment matching and digital interventions, using the social domain in interventions (such as community workers) and targeting family and social connection to deal with mental health problems and conditions. The academic centre is embedded in ‘de Voordeur’ of Arkin where all referrals to mental health Arkin, including preventive interventions and in primary care (POH), are processed.
Academic Collaborative Centre Forensic Psychiatry
Interim PI’s Hans de Haas and Lise Swinkels
The Academic Collaborative Center Forensic Psychiatry constitutes a collaboration of Inforsa, Arkin’s division for forensic psychiatry, and the Department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC. The center focuses on research into interventions that support recovery and reduce criminal or disruptive behaviour in individuals with severe mental illness. The unique patient population and specialized treatments at Inforsa provide an opportunity to study interventions that are not widely implemented elsewhere. The center also drives innovation by introducing and evaluating new treatment approaches. In doing so, it contributes to improving care both within Inforsa and in similar settings.
Ongoing projects include research on social network reinforcement, music therapy, psychotherapy for forensic outpatients, and electroconvulsive therapy for treatment-resistant disorders.