Odile van den Heuvel is trained as medical doctor (Erasmus MC, Rotterdam 1991-1998), psychiatrist (VUmc/GGZinGeest, Amsterdam, 2001-2007), and neuroscientist (VU/Amsterdam Neuroscience, PhD 1999-2005, ‘with highest distinction’). She specialised in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Parkinson’s disease. In both diseases she studies brain circuit alterations underlying symptom profiles using multiple neuroimaging techniques. Van den Heuvel also develops and tests innovative interventions to enhance emotional/cognitive and physical functioning.

As clinician she initiated a specialised outpatient clinic for Neuropsychiatry in 2008 (Amsterdam UMC). This outpatient clinic primarily focused on neuropsychiatric disorders in Parkinson and other neurological disorders.

As neuroscientist, she started her scientific work on OCD and related mental disorders. Van den Heuvel extended her work to Parkinson in 2008. With a specific interest in impulse control disorders, mood/anxiety-related disturbances and cognitive decline. She leads the research group Neuropsychiatry. Their aim is to translate neuroscientific knowledge to the clinic by developing innovative treatments targeting specific neural circuits, using e.g., exposure therapy, cognitive and physical training, and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). She combines randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with pre-post-treatment imaging, to study the neural effects and predict treatment response.

Prof dr. Odile van den Heuvel chairs the worldwide ENIGMA-OCD consortium and the Neuromodulation network of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP). She is member of the editorial board of Biological Psychiatry and its sisters journal Biol Psych CNNI and Biol Psych GOS.