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Recent Updates

News

FAMILY Layman paper – for the general public

We are excited to share the publication of the layman version of our consortium paper Understanding and predicting the intergenerational transmission of mental illness featured in the October issue of Open Access Government!

We believe that layman versions of scientific publications are crucial for making research more accessible and helping to bridge the gap between scientific experts and the general public. Additionally, they encourage informed decision-making and promote greater awareness of, in our case, mental health research, that might impact everyday life.

📑 From the full text:
“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘳𝘶𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 (𝘢𝘬𝘢 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴) 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴. 𝘠𝘦𝘵, 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘈𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺, 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯. 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘮𝘢, 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱.”

Understanding-and-predicting-the-intergenerational-transmission-of-mental-illness_Karguth-et-al_Open-access-governmentDownload
12 October 2024
News

FAMILY spotlight – Interview series

Meet Raffael Kalisch, professor for human neuroimaging and a key expert in resilience research for the FAMILY project. His objective is to understand the reasons why certain children remain unaffected by their parents’ mental illness, exploring the factors that contribute to their resilience. In this brief interview, Raffael explains the specifics of his role within the FAMILY project, shares his enthusiasm for the project and reveals the best part about being a scientist.

20 August 2024
News

FAMILY spotlight – Interview series

Meet Isabelle Mansuy, professor in neuroepigenetics and leader of work package 6 in the FAMILY project. In FAMILY she helps to define the role of behavioural and biological factors related to the intergenerational transmission of risk of mental illness using mouse models. In this brief interview, Isabelle dives into the details of her role in FAMILY, what is motivating her as a scientist and shares her best advice for early career scientists.

13 March 2024

About

Mental illness runs in families.
The FAMILY consortium aims to improve the life of mentally-ill persons and their families:

  • firstly focus on better understanding the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of mental illness from parent to child.
  • studying the family context, we will try to build models to predict whether mental illness will be transmitted across generations or not.
  • FAMILY will also address key ethical and social issues raised by risk prediction for clinical use, such as the right not to know, and the risk of stigma.
  • Lastly, together with the family advocacy and support organisation EUFAMI and the not-for-profit association ESCAP, we will try to increase awareness and foster active engagement of families, and translate new discoveries to patients and mental health care professionals.

Read more

FAMILY translates current barriers into 3 themes of enquiry, with the following 6 project objectives:

Theme 1

Understanding intergenerational transmission of risk

  • Estimate the contribution of genetic and environmental routes of intergenerational transmission of risk from parent to offspring throughout the life course.
  • Identify causal factors underlying genetic and environmental routes of risk transmission and resilience.
Theme 2

Predicting risk of mental illness in a familial context

  • Identify and validate genetic, epigenetic, and brain imaging biomarkers for risk or resilience to mental disease in the family.
  • Develop and validate a multimodal risk prediction model and a normative modelling framework to predict, at the individual level, who is at risk of developing a mental disorder.
Theme 3

Creating societal impact and end-user engagement

  • Map and evaluate social and ethical consequences of risk prediction for clinical use.
  • Increase awareness and foster active engagement of families and translate new discoveries to patients and mental health care professionals.

Impact

Scientific

New breakthrough scientific discoveries on the intergenerational transmission of risk of mental illness and risk prediction within a family context, pushing the field forward towards first clinical implementation of family-based prediction tools by 2035.

Clinical

Ethical considerations regarding risk prediction support mental health care professionals and patients and their families in clinical decision-making. Awareness on the role of transmission of risk of mental health problems stimulates the integration of child/adolescent and adult mental health care services, leading to improved care for high-risk families.

Societal

Improved mental health literacy in vulnerable high-risk families, resulting in increased engagement with their own mental health and earlier recognition of mental health problems, leading to earlier identification and preventive intervention. Improved quality of life of vulnerable high-risk families because of earlier recognition of emerging problems, earlier and focused preventive interventions, and less stigma and discrimination.

Economic

Earlier identification and preventive intervention of mental health problems prevents exacerbation of these problems, resulting in reduced mental health care cost in the longer term.