Psychiatrist and professor of stress and resilience Christiaan Vinkers (Amsterdam UMC, GGZ inGeest) has been awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator grant for his project RHYTHM. Over the next five years he will investigate how the daily rhythm of the stress hormone cortisol helps explain why some people remain mentally healthy under pressure, while others develop depression or anxiety. And how this knowledge can be used to improve treatment.
From stress hormone to resilience
Stress is part of everyday life. Short bursts of stress can boost focus and performance, but long term stress increases the risk of mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Cortisol plays a key role in this process. This stress hormone follows a clear day night rhythm, with high levels in the early morning and low levels in the evening and night. Many people with stress related disorders appear to have a disturbed cortisol rhythm.
RHYTHM
With this new project, RHYTHM, Vinkers aims to find out whether this cortisol rhythm is the missing link between stress and mental health. “We have known for a long time that cortisol is important, but most studies only looked at a few isolated time points,” Vinkers explains. “Thanks to new technology we can now monitor cortisol continuously over twenty four hours in daily life. That allows us to study the full pattern instead of snapshots.”
“Thanks to new technology we can now monitor cortisol continuously over twenty four hours in daily life. That allows us to study the full pattern instead of snapshots.”
Towards rhythm based interventions for mental health
By combining intensive hormone monitoring in daily life with experimental and clinical studies, RHYTHM aims to move from static measurements to a dynamic view of the stress system. “If we can show that disturbed cortisol rhythms are a key mechanism in stress related disorders, this opens the door to new ways to support resilience,” says Vinkers. This might include medication that restores the rhythm, but also behavioural and digital interventions that strengthen sleep and daily routines.
European Research Council
The ERC Consolidator grant is a highly competitive personal grant from the European Research Council that enables excellent researchers to consolidate and expand their independent research line. RHYTHM fits within the broader ambition of Amsterdam UMC and the department of Psychiatry to link fundamental discoveries about stress and resilience to concrete improvements in mental health care.
About Christiaan Vinkers
Prof. dr. Christiaan Vinkers is psychiatrist at GGZ inGeest and professor stress and resilience at Amsterdam UMC. His research focuses on stress, (childhood)trauma, resilience and depression. Vinkers is founder of the national Stress-NL network, PI of DESTRESS and is involved in Stress in Action. He puts a lot of effort in knowledge transfer about stress and mental health to fellow scientists, health care professionals, and the broader public in The Netherlands.