Center for Life Ethics
Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 7
D-53113 Bonn

 

+49 228 73 66100

 

lifeethics@uni-bonn.de

01.January 2022 - 31.March 2025

CARE – Computer-Assisted Risk-Evaluation and Risk-Adapted Treatment for Patients at High-Risk for Psychosis

CARE – Computer-Assisted Risk-Evaluation and Risk-Adapted Treatment for Patients at High-Risk for Psychosis

Background

About 20 percent of people in Germany are affected by a mental illness. In particular, psychotic disorders are associated with considerable stress for those affected due to a precursor phase lasting several years, often beginning in late adolescence or early adulthood, severe symptoms, the impairment of psycho-social functioning, and stigmatisation.

 

However, in Germany, there are hardly any specialised early detection or prevention services; as a result, a high risk for psychosis often remains undetected. At the same time the lack of effective preventive measures causes a delay of treatment and diminished therapeutic success, and hence leads to the manifestation of psychosis, high chronicity-rates, and ultimately to an increase in treatment costs.

Research Question and Main Objective

CARE therefore aims to improve the risk evaluation for patients with a high clinical risk for psychosis, and thus to prevent the transition to a manifest psychosis and the associated reduction of psycho-social functioning. For this purpose, a new form of clinical care will be applied for the first time: Firstly, the patient’s individual risk to develop a psychosis and/or to suffer from a loss of psycho-social functioning within a year will be estimated algorithmically. Secondly, the patient will receive a preventive intervention that is adapted to his/her individual risk.

The main objective of CARE is to evaluate the effectiveness of this new instrument of preventive psychiatry in a clinical trial, complemented by a health-economical cost-benefit analysis. 

Additionally, the project explores on the ethical implications of risk detection in psychiatry as well as the ethical requirements of communicating their individual risk of developing psychosis to patients. A further aim is to investigate the effects of a computer-assisted, individualised risk prediction on the patient’s (self-) stigmatisation.

If this new form of care proves successful, i. e.  if it is effective, has a favourable cost-benefit balance and is ethically legitimate, CARE might induce the development of risk-stratified and personalised diagnostics and therapy for patients with a high risk for psychotic disorders that may ultimately be implemented into standard care.

Contact

MedizinFotoKöln

Director of Center for Life Ethics


Hertz Chair TRA4

Prof. Dr.
Christiane Woopen

Contact

Location

Center for Life Ethics

Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 7

53113 Bonn

Consortium Leadership / Project Leadership

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Meisenzahl (Heinrich Heine University (HHU) Düsseldorf, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Heinrich Heine University (HHU) Düsseldorf, LVR Clinic Düsseldorf

Co-Project-Leadership

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Nikolaos Koutsouleris (LMU Munich)

Consortium Partners:
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christiane Woopen (Sub-Project Ethics) (Center for Life Ethics, University of Bonn)
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Schomerus (Leipzig University)
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Juliane Köberlein-Neu (University of Wuppertal)
  • Univ.-Prof. Dr. Stefanie J. Schmidt (University of Bern)
  • Techniker Krankenkasse
  • DAK-Gesundheit
  • AOK Rheinland/Hamburg - Die Gesundheitskasse
  • University Hospital of Munich (LMU)
  • University Hospital Cologne
  • University Hospital Bonn
  • LVR-Klinik Bonn
  • Münster University Hospital (UKM)
  • Kiel University
  • Universität zu Lübeck
  • Diakonie Nord·Nord·Ost in Holstein gemeinnützige GmbH
  • University Hospital of Würzburg
  • Hospital Charité /Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
  • Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg
  • Universitätsklinikum Aachen
  • Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe - LWL-Universitätsklinikums Bochum
  • Central Institute of Mental Health
  • Landeskrankenhaus Rheinland-Pfalz
  • Tübingen University Hospital
  • University of Konstanz
  • Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) 
  • Technische Universität Dresden
  • Vivantes Netzwerk Gesundheit GmbH
  • Universitätsklinikum Augsburg
Funding

Innovation Fund of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA)

Care-Network.EuG-BA Innovationsfonds
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