Neurological and Psychiatric Diseases

Data and Facts
According to estimates of the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than one billion people in the world suffer from diseases of the central nervous system. In addition to cranio-cerebral and spinal cord injuries, this includes Parkinson's syndrome (patients in Germany: 150,000 to 200,000), dementia (estimated 1.2 million), stroke (approx. 250,000 per year), epilepsy (400,000 to 800,000), depression (approx. 4 million) and schizophrenia (800.000). These diseases not only cause great human suffering, they are also associated with enormous costs. For example, the costs of hospital stays, missed work, early retirement and the lifelong care that is frequently required. It is therefore urgently necessary to improve medical care in this area for ethical and social as well as economic reasons.

What Does the BMBF Do?
Methodological and technical innovations have helped to further illuminate the onset and progression of brain diseases. Improved diagnosis and therapy options have been opened by new research findings. For instance, human genome research has improved knowledge of genetic influences on various neurological and mental diseases and revealed approaches for the development of completely new drugs. For example, methods of functional imaging can be used today to investigate the ways in which drugs work. Originally developed for medical diagnostics, these methods also permit non-invasive investigation of brain functions. Despite the good research results, however, the health care situation of the patients has not improved accordingly because the new scientific knowledge is not transferred optimally to the area of care. In the future, the existing research potential should be focused in a bundled, networked and focused way so that the scientific progress will quickly benefit the patient care. Another goal of this strategy is to maintain and further improve the level of the neurosciences in Germany, which is already high in international comparison. 

Outside of the Health Research Programme, the BMBF also supports neuroscience topics in other programmes, such as "Molecular Life Sciences", "Biotechnology", "Microsystems technology" and information technology "IKT2020".

Concrete Examples
The BMBF is currently funding neuroscience research within the medical competence networks. These are interregional networks on defined disease syndromes in which research and care are closely interrelated. The competence networks receive long term support and are expected to continue their work on their own by acquiring research funding. The BMBF has established several competence networks in the neurosciences: Depression and Suicidality, Schizophrenia, Stroke and Parkinson's syndrome. The Competence Network Dementia was added in 2002. Under the direction of a network management office, a coordination centre in each competence network serves three to five regional centres. These in turn have contact with additional institutions for care and to patient organizations, forming a closely knit network of research and care interests.

The research infrastructure shall be further improved over the long term with institutions such as the Brain Net, the German reference centre for diseases of the central nervous system. Biological material (e.g. nerve tissue, serum and liquor samples) as well as clinical patient data are collected and stored for specific diseases at several German universities, coordinated by a central management office at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

Improvement of pain therapy in Germany is an important issue for the suffering patients and also from a health economical view. There is still considerable need for research. Therefore, since March 2002 the BMBF has been funding interregional and interdisciplinary research networks, which are focused on the pain syndromes "neuropathic pain" (nerve pain) and "headache/migraine". Within the networks scientists from various disciplines (among others neurobiology, neurology, psychology, pharmacology, anaesthesiology, social medicine, biometry) work together in or with hospitals and pain ambulances. Since most patients do not seek help in university hospitals but with their family doctor, general practitioners are included in the networks. Thus, an optimal transfer of research results into health care is guaranteed.

Since 2006 BMBF has been funding research consortia on cognitive performance and relevant disorders in humans. Cognition research requires a directed cooperation of various disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry, neurology, neurophysiology and computational neuroscience. It leads to a better understanding of higher brain functions and their disorders. The consortia build a bridge between a research approach aiming at the fundamental understanding of higher brain function and clinical research with patients. In the consortia human cognition is studied with the help of behavioral testing as well as with different methods measuring brain activity.

Mental disorders belong to the most important disease groups. They have a lifetime prevalence of 30 % and are often responsible for early retirement and sickleave. Due to the demographic development of the population in Germany it is expected that the frequency of mental disorders and their impact on the health care system will increase. Psychotherapeutic interventions of various kinds are routinely applied in the treatment of many mental disorders. To date, psychotherapeutic treatments play an important role in the national health care system. The aim of the BMBF funding measure is to advance psychotherapy research, to improve the interdisciplinary cooperation in the field and to ameliorate the structural conditions. The accelerated transfer of scientific results into heath care is another goal.

In the year 2002, regional Centres for Neuroimaging were established with support from the BMBF at which the functions of healthy and diseased human brains are studied with the help of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET). This led to an increased demand for qualified scientific personnel in leading positions. Therefore, BMBF funds since 2007 eight neuroscience young investigator groups. Thus, excellent young scientists have been given the opportunity to work independently and to establish a research profile of their own at an early stage of their careers.

International collaboration in the area of neuroscience aims at synergies through joint studies, and at a better understanding of the mechanisms of neurological and psychiatric disorders. In addition, it is expected to help develop therapeutic and rehabilitation measures for these diseases. This strategy is pursued by the BMBF in the ERA-Net NEURON - "Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research" - together with currently 16 funding organisations from 13 European countries, Israel and Canada. The project is funded by the EU in the 6th Framework Programme. Its goal is to coordinate the national funding programmes and activities in the area of disease-related neurosciences. In the course of the project, information about neuroscience research in the partner countries shall be exchanged and funding strategies developed. Eventually, multinational research projects shall be jointly funded.  

In addition the multilateral project, long term cooperation exists with Israel and Poland, respectively.
The cooperation with Israel in the area of neurosciences started in 1998 and is coordinated on the German side by the BMBF and on the Israeli side by the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport (MOST). From then on 25 German-Israeli projects were funded and in addition travel stipends for German and Israeli young scientists were provided.
In the year 2002 Poland and Germany began cooperating in health research. BMBF and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) launched a funding programme for cooperative projects in neuroscience. With a new call in 2006 the second funding phase started and German-Polish projects are supported which study development, degeneration, regeneration, regulation, and protection of the brain and nervous system

Neuroscience topics are also supported within the framework of the interdisciplinary centres for clinical research (IZKF). Five of eight centres are occupied with neuroscience projects. For instance, the IZKF Leipzig is focused on Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Diseases and the IZKF Tübingen on disorders of sense organs and the central nervous system.