In addition, we want to thank the @lmumuenchen.bsky.social Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, the @mpi-psychiatry.bsky.social, the Gesellschaft für Angstforschung (GAF), the @stressnetworkch.bsky.social, the @gsrnet.bsky.social, and the Flagship UMZH Stress for collaborating with us! 🙏 🎉

This coupling may reflect a neural mechanism involved in autonomic stress regulation, as it is correlated to both genetic stress-related predispositions, as well as psychometric assessments of stress coping styles.

Their findings reveal a stress-specific dynamic in heart rate-insula coupling, with the posterior insula showing a stress-dependent negative association with heart rate uniquely during a task that robustly modulates cardiovascular arousal.

While a closer link of anxiety, depression and ADHD with PIU was observed one year after the first lockdown in comparison to the first wave of assessment, the association between PIU and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) remained constant.

👉 wasad2025.org/wp-content/u...

In their research, they explored how associations between mental health variables and problematic internet use (PIU) may have changed during the pandemic.

However, NSSI events during the sampling period were mostly triggered by real-life events.

These results underscore the need for targeted interventions addressing online interactions to mitigate NSSI behaviors and improve adolescent mental health.

In comparing adolescents with and without a history of NSSI, they showed that for adolescents who engage in NSSI, negative events on social media were more strongly associated with perceived stress, negative affect, and NSSI urges than real-life negative events.

In addition, he outlined promising future directions for the treatment of these trauma-related disorders, for example by using dynamic indicators for treatment planning to identify the optimal timing for trauma-focused interventions.

At #WASAD2025 he primarily addressed the latter with his insightful keynote on "Virtual Reality in anxiety – perspectives and limitations".

His main clinical and research focus is on neurobiology, psychopharmacology and psychotherapy of depression and anxiety disorders, neurostimulation, E-mental Health and Virtual Reality (VR).

Swipe through the photos above for a glimpse into his exploration of the brain-heart connection! 💥🧠🫀.

His lecture, “Decoding the impact of genetic risk factors and stress exposure on psychiatric disorders,” offered valuable insights into his research on gene–environment interactions, neuropeptide pathways, and other stress-related disease mechanisms. 🧬🧠

In her lecture, Professor Penninx shared findings from her research on the prevalence of anxiety disorders, discussing potential reasons for their apparent increase, strategies to alleviate their burden, and the functional component of stress.

📊 The scientific program included:

🔹 5 keynote lectures
🔸 15 plenary sessions...
🔹 ...with a total of 61 presentations
🔸 50 on-site posters
🔹 and 5 ePosters!!

First off: #WASAD2025 in numbers! 📊

👉 In total, 227 researchers, clinicians, and psychologists from 19 countries attended the Congress.

The top countries of origin were:
🇩🇪 Germany
🇨🇭 Switzerland
🇦🇹 Austria
…followed closely, however, by 🇨🇿 the Czech Republic.