Detail

Keywords

Biological Psychiatry; Deep Brain Stimulation; Depression; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Tourette Syndrome; Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Research group(s)

• NEUROIMAGING LABs (NIL) - PET & MRI & EEG & Chemical Lab
  Research Area: Psychopharmacological Neuroimaging; Experimental Nuclear Medicine; Multimodal Neuroimaging; Translational Neuroimaging; Psycho-Neuroendocrinology; Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience; Gender Medicine
  Members:
  Rene Seiger
  Christoph Kraus

Research interests

My main goal is to alleviate suffering in patients affected by severe psychiatric diseases with a focus on mood disorders, OCD and related diseases. This involves investigations of neurobiological causes in patients with currently available neuroscientific methods as well as improving the tools to detect and monitor patients with chronic disease courses. In addition, my work aims to leverage neurobiological knowledge such as information on disease vulnerability towards successful clinical applications.  

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

I am trained in clinical psychiatry, psychopharmacology and translational research methodologies. In addition, I am trainined in cognitive behavioral therapy and licensed to perform indication and treatment with electroconvulsive therapy. By basic scientific training was in structural and functional neuroimaging with a PhD on serotonin and neuroplasticity supervised by Prof. Rupert Lanzenberger. I conducted a postdoctoral research fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, USA, with Dr. Carlos Zarate focussed on resting-state markers of ketamine response with fMRI.

At the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy I manage a junior research group focussed on invasive neuromodulation such as deep brain stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation as well as advanced psychiatric treatments, which is a branch of the Neuroimaging labs (NIL). We are setting up and conducting studies together with partners within the Medical Neuroscience Cluster at the Medical University of Vienna and the National Institute of Mental Health using methods in the fields of electrophysiology, MRI and neurosurgery (Dr. Klaus Novak). In addition, we conduct interventional studies on advanced treatment of patients with depression and OCD.

Grants

• Ketamine and Stress in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (2024)
  Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), KLIF
  Principal Investigator
• The Brain’s Glucose Consumption During DBS in OCD (2019)
  Source of Funding: Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, NARSAD Young Investigator Grant
  Principal Investigator

Selected publications

1. Kraus, C. et al., 2014. Gray matter and intrinsic network changes in the posterior cingulate cortex after selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor intake. NeuroImage, 84, pp.236-244. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.08.036.
2. Kraus, C. et al. (2020) ‘Evaluating global brain connectivity as an imaging marker for depression: influence of preprocessing strategies and placebo-controlled ketamine treatment’, Neuropsychopharmacology, 45(6), pp. 982–989. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-020-0624-0.
3. Kraus, C. et al. (2012) ‘Serotonin-1A receptor binding is positively associated with gray matter volume — A multimodal neuroimaging study combining PET and structural MRI’, NeuroImage, 63(3), pp. 1091–1098. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.07.035.
4. Kraus, C. et al. (2020) ‘Prognosis and Improved Outcomes in Major Depression: A Review’, Focus, 18(2), pp. 220–235. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.18205.
5. Kraus, C. et al., 2018. The pulvinar nucleus and antidepressant treatment: dynamic modeling of antidepressant response and remission with ultra-high field functional MRI. Molecular Psychiatry. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41380-017-0009-x.