Preventing the depressed state

30 November 2009

Professor Pim Cuijpers

Depression is expected to be the disorder with the highest burden in western countries by 2030. Treating the disease has limited impact, but can prevention of depression help in reducing this burden? Evidence suggests it is possible to prevent the onset of depressive disorders in high-risk groups. So what is prevention and why is it important? Can depression among the population be reduced by using this technique? Professor Cuijpers will answer these questions and provide an overview of the research, including its limitations and the challenges for future research. As part of his talk, Professor Cuijpers will talk about the potential use of the internet to provide care to people with depressive disorders

Broad Topics: Medicine and Life Science

Sub-topics: Medical & Health Science

Areas: ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment

Pim Cuijpers is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the VU University Amsterdam (The Netherlands), and Head of the Department of Clinical Psychology. He is also Vice Director of the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research (www.emgo.nl) and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Education at the VU University. Professor Cuijpers has published about 300 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, reports and professional publications. He specialises in examining the effectiveness of psychological interventions for common mental disorders, especially depression. Research on internet-based treatments of depression and anxiety disorders is one of his areas of research.

This public lecture was presented by the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute.