Felix Bermpohl

Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin | Charité · Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

Introduction: Each suicide affects about five close family members, potentially heightening risk for psychopathology and suicide. Communication style is a key factor in mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of families. Family communication after suicide, however, is insufficiently conceptualised and studied. This study aimed to identify differe...

Background The German multicenter research consortium BipoLife aims to investigate the mechanisms underlying bipolar disorders. It focuses in particular on people at high risk of developing the disorder and young patients in the early stages of the disease. Functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data was collected in all partici...

Sleep disturbances are common in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder. Exercise interventions are a promising approach in the treatment of sleep disorders, but little is known about the efficacy of exercise interventions for sleep disturbances associated with posttraumatic stress disorder. A total of 40 individuals with posttraumatic stre...

New therapeutic approaches for Alcohol Dependence (AD) include Virtual Reality (VR)-based treatments offering scalable options for Cue Exposure (CE), a well-established strategy in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and tolerability of a new VR-CE intervention. On an explorative basis, factors influencing the...

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are seen as a continuum ranging from goal‐directed and hedonic drug use to loss of control over drug intake with aversive consequences for mental and physical health and social functioning. The main goals of our interdisciplinary German collaborative research centre on Losing and Regaining Control over Drug Intake (Re...

Introduction The psychic structure of people with psychosis has been the subject of theoretical and qualitative considerations. However, it has not been sufficiently studied quantitatively. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the structural abilities of people diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective psychosis using the Levels o...

Background Individuals at risk for bipolar disorder (BD) have a wide range of genetic and non-genetic risk factors, like a positive family history of BD or (sub)threshold affective symptoms. Yet, it is unclear whether these individuals at risk and those diagnosed with BD share similar gray matter brain alterations. Methods In 410 male and female p...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased levels of psychological distress in the general population, at the same time providing a perfect breeding ground for conspiracy beliefs. Psychiatric patients are considered as a population with an increased vulnerability for stressful events, and conspiracy beliefs show overlaps with p...

Background Alcohol use disorder (AUD) belongs to the most burdensome clinical disorders worldwide. Current treatment approaches yield unsatisfactory long-term effects with relapse rates up to 85%. Craving for alcohol is a major predictor for relapse and can be intentionally induced via cue exposure in real life as well as in Virtual Reality (VR). T...

Background Suicidality, ranging from passive suicidal thoughts to suicide attempt, is common in major depressive disorder (MDD). However, relatively little is known about patient, illness and treatment characteristics in those with co-occurring MDD and suicidality, including the timing of and factors associated with the offset, continuation or reem...

Introduction While numerous studies have identified an increase in symptoms of depression as well as anxiety and distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, relatively few studies have investigated the new-onset of psychiatric diseases during the pandemic. Methods This study focuses on the number of psychiatric new-onset diagnoses in a psychiatric emer...

Background: The acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) donepezil, galantamine, and rivastigmine are commonly used in the management of various forms of dementia. Objectives: While these drugs are known to induce classic cholinergic adverse events such as diarrhea, their potential to cause psychiatric adverse events has yet to be thoroughly exa...

Preschool mental disorders are often associated with significant interpersonal problems, related to impaired affect recognition, theory of mind (ToM), and empathy. To date, these skills have not been studied together in preschoolers with externalizing behavior problems (EBPs). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether and to what exte...

Background Impairments in speech production are a core symptom of non-affective psychosis (NAP). While traditional clinical ratings of patients’ speech involve a subjective human factor, modern methods of natural language processing (NLP) promise an automatic and objective way of analyzing patients’ speech. This study aimed to validate NLP methods...

Introduction Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the most common mental illnesses worldwide and is strongly associated with suicidality. Commonly used treatments for MDD with suicidality include crisis intervention, oral antidepressants (although risk of suicidal behavior is high among non-responders and during the first 10-14 days of the tre...

Lithium is regarded as the first-line treatment for bipolar disorder (BD), a severe and disabling mental health disorder that affects about 1% of the population worldwide. Nevertheless, lithium is not consistently effective, with only 30% of patients showing a favorable response to treatment. To provide personalized treatment options for bipolar pa...

Background Psychotic disorders often develop a chronic course with devastating consequences for individuals, families, and societies. Early intervention programs for people in the first 5 years after the initial psychotic episode (early psychosis) can significantly improve the outcome and are therefore strongly recommended in national and internati...

Early life maltreatment can have severe and long-lasting consequences for the directly affected individual as well as for the next generation. Data from our research including mother-child dyads from Heidelberg and Berlin showed that early life maltreatment is associated with behavioral, hormonal and neural changes including personality traits and...

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) belongs to the most burdensome clinical disorders worldwide. Current treatment approaches yield unsatisfactory long-term effects with relapse rates up to 85%. Craving for alcohol is a major predictor for relapse and can be intentionally induced via cue exposure in real life as well as in Virtual Reality (VR)....

Coercive measures (CM) in psychiatry adversely affect patients and efforts to minimize CM are steadily increasing. One area that has not been a strong focus of preventative efforts to date is the time of use of CM during hospitalization although previous research indicates that the admission situation and early hospitalization are times of increase...

The pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD) remains mostly unclear. Yet, a valid biomarker is necessary to improve upon the early detection of this serious disorder. Patients with manifest BD display reduced volumes of the hippocampal subfields and amygdala nuclei. In this pre-registered analysis, we used structural MRI (n = 271, 7 sites) to compa...

Background: Individuals with bipolar disorder are commonly correctly diagnosed a decade after symptom onset. Machine learning techniques may aid in early recognition and reduce the disease burden. As both individuals at risk and those with a manifest disease display structural brain markers, structural magnetic resonance imaging may provide releva...

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Patienten mit psychischen und terminal somatischen Erkrankungen stellen eine klinische Herausforderung dar. Oft führt die psychiatrische Symptomatik zu eingeschränkter intensiver/palliativmedizinischer Versorgung. Bislang wurden kaum Versorgungsansätze für psychiatrisch kranke Patienten am Lebensende publiziert. Vorliegende Publikat...

The pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD) remains mostly unclear. Yet, a valid biomarker is necessary to improve early detection of this serious disorder. Patients with manifest BD display reduced volumes of the hippocampal subfields and amygdala nuclei. In this pre-registered analysis, we used structural MRI (N=271, 7 sites), to compare volumes...

Obsessive–compulsive symptoms (OCS) are frequently observed in individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ) treated with clozapine (CLZ). This study aimed to analyze prevalence of OCS and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) in this subgroup and find possible correlations with different phenotypes. Additionally, this is the first study to examine polygeneti...

Background: Although mental health professionals' mental health problems are gaining increased attention, there is little systematic research on this topic. Aims: This study investigated the frequency of crisis experiences among mental health professionals and examined how they approach these experiences in terms of their personal and social ide...

Background: Predicting relapse for individuals with psychotic disorders is not well established, especially after discontinuation of antipsychotic treatment. We aimed to identify general prognostic factors of relapse for all participants (irrespective of treatment continuation or discontinuation) and specific predictors of relapse for treatment di...

Objectives: In bipolar disorder (BD), the alternation of extreme mood states indicates deficits in emotion processing, accompanied by aberrant neural function of the emotion network. The present study investigated the effects of an emotion-centered psychotherapeutic intervention on amygdala responsivity and connectivity during emotional face proce...

Lithium is regarded as the first-line treatment for bipolar disorder (BD), a severe and disabling mental disorder that affects about 1% of the population worldwide. Nevertheless, lithium is not consistently effective, with only 30% of patients showing a favorable response to treatment. To provide personalized treatment options for bipolar patients,...

Introduction The use of restraint as a means of managing patients is considered a critical factor that interferes with recovery. Strategies to create a less restrictive environment within psychiatric facilities are therefore eagerly sought. Peer support workers (PSWs) are increasingly employed in mental health settings. The prevailing theory is tha...

Background and objectives: The Affect Intolerance Scale (AIS) assesses two core concepts of emotion regulation: appraisals of negative emotions as threatening and proneness to emotional avoidance. Maladaptive emotion regulation is associated with various psychopathologies. We translated and validated the AIS in a German student and clinical sample...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Eltern mit psychischen Erkrankungen haben in der Peripartalzeit einen großen Unterstützungsbedarf. Bislang gibt es nur wenige spezialisierte Angebote. In dieser Untersuchung wird eine Spezialsprechstunde für psychisch kranke Eltern ausgewertet. Methoden Es wurden demographische und krankheitsbezogene Daten der Patient*in...

Background: Most studies agree that the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown had a negative impact on mental health. On the other hand, international studies have shown that psychiatric emergency departments (pED) experienced a decrease in presentations and admissions. Methods: Retrospective chart review of all pED presentations and adm...

Purpose: Loneliness among the elderly is a widespread phenomenon and is connected to various negative health outcomes. Nevertheless, loneliness among elderly inpatients, especially those with a psychiatric diagnosis, has hardly been examined. Our study assessed loneliness in elderly inpatients, identified predictors, and compared levels of lonelin...

Recently, attachment-informed researchers and clinicians have begun to show that attachment theory offers a useful framework for exploring group psychotherapy. However, it remains unclear whether patients with differing attachment classifications would behave and speak in distinct ways in group therapy sessions. Aim: In this study, we conducted an...

Social cognition (SC) research in bipolar disorders (BD) has provided evidence about deficits in different phases of the illness. Most of the studies have focused on two aspects of SC: theory of mind and emotion recognition. However, according to influential models of social neuroscience, two aspects of understanding others need to be distinguished...

Purpose of Review Parental mental disorders, particularly borderline personality disorder (BPD), impair parenting behavior. Consequently, the children exhibit an elevated risk for psychopathology across their lifespan. Social support for parents is thought to moderate the relationship between parental mental illness and parenting behavior. It may d...

Psychiatric patients are prone to mental health deterioration during the Covid-19 pandemic. Little is known about suicidality in psychiatric patients during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study is a retrospective chart review of psychiatric emergency department (pED) presentations with present or absent suicidality (5634 pED attendances, 4110 patients...

Background: Virtual reality (VR) enables immersion in an interactive digital world with realistic experiences, that can be applied for controlled and personalized interventions. This review summarizes the current research on VR in the treatment of mental disorders. Methods: Selective literature search in PubMed and Google Scholar. Results: An...

Objectives In BD, impaired affective theory of mind (aToM) performance and aberrant neural activation in the ToM brain network partly explain social functioning impairments. However, it is not yet known whether psychotherapy of BD influences neuroimaging markers of aToM. Methods In the present study conducted within the multicentric randomized con...

Parenting requires mothers to read social cues and understand their children. It is particularly important that they recognise their child's emotions to react appropriately, for example, with compassion to sadness or compersion to happiness. Despite this importance, it is unclear how motherhood affects women's ability to recognise emotions associat...

Importance: Alcohol consumption (AC) leads to death and disability worldwide. Ongoing discussions on potential negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on AC need to be informed by real-world evidence. Objective: To examine whether lockdown measures are associated with AC and consumption-related temporal and psychological within-person mechanis...

Gambling problems are often associated with homelessness and linked to elevated psychiatric morbidity and homelessness chronicity. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis on prevalence rates of problem gambling (PG) and gambling disorder (GD) in homeless people. Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched databases Medline, Embase and PsycI...

Individuals with bipolar disorder are commonly correctly diagnosed a decade after the onset of first symptoms. Machine learning techniques may aid in early recognition and reduce the disease burden. As both individuals at risk and those with a manifest disease display structural brain markers, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may provide...

Coercive measures (CM) and involuntary admission to psychiatric treatment can have detrimental consequences for patients. Past research shows that certain clinical, treatment and admission-related characteristics put patients at a higher risk of experiencing CM and involuntary admission. Although of high societal importance, the association between...

Empathy allows us to share emotions and encourages us to help others. It is especially important in the context of parenting where children’s wellbeing is dependent on their parents’ understanding and fulfilment of their needs. To date, little is known about differences in empathy responses of parents and non-parents. Using stimuli depicting adults...

Background The centrality of an event indicates the extent to which it becomes a core part of identity and life story. Event centrality (EC) has been shown to have a strong relationship with PTSD symptoms, which seems to be indirectly influenced by negative posttraumatic cognitions (PTC). However, research on this potential mediation and its causal...

Successful parenting requires constant inferring of affective states. Especially vital is the correct identification of facial affect. Previous studies have shown that infant faces are processed preferentially compared to adult faces both on the behavioural and the neural level. This study specifically investigates the child‐evoked neural responses...

Background Adverse events can occur after antipsychotic discontinuation but evidence from antipsychotic drug trials is scarce. We aimed to estimate the occurrence of adverse events after discontinuing antipsychotics. Methods For this two-stage individual participant data meta-analysis, we searched the Yale University Open Data Access Project's dat...

Objective: Cognitive down-regulation of craving involves a neural network within the prefrontal cortex. Tobacco use disorder (TUD) and trait impulsivity have been associated with prefrontal cortex impairments and down-regulation deficits. However, general deficits in down-regulation of craving (regarding non-drug-related cues) compared to never-sm...

Background: Mothers with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often show altered emotional availability toward their own child and heightened stress vulnerability. The aims of the present study were (1) to examine total cortisol output in saliva during mother-child interaction in mothers with BPD and their children and (2) to test whether materna...

Objective: The aim of the present study was to analyze the effects of the implementation of the Recovery-orientated psychiatric care concept “Weddinger Modell” on the incidence of forced medication, the total number of forced medication incidents per affected case, the maximum dose of a singular forced medication and the maximum voluntary daily dru...

Background Post-coercion review has been increasingly regarded as a useful intervention in psychiatric inpatient setting. However, little is known about its effect on perceived coercion. Methods A multicenter, two-armed, randomized controlled trial was conducted, aiming at analyzing the effect of post-coercion review on perceived coercion. People...

Objectives: Impairments in social cognitive processes are discussed as a vulnerability factor for bipolar disorder (BD). Previous studies demonstrated aberrant neural activation in brain areas related to theory of mind (ToM) and impaired affective ToM (aToM) task performance in BD. However, it is yet unknown whether successful psychotherapy of BD i...

The study was designed to investigate the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health and perceived psychosocial support for elderly psychiatric patients in a longitudinal design. n = 32 patients with affective or anxiety disorders aged ≥60 years were included. Telephone interviews were conducted in April/May 2020 (T...

Background Parents’ mental illness (MI) and parental history of early life maltreatment (ELM) are known to be significant risk factors for poor parenting while poor parenting is a crucial mediator of the intergenerational continuity of child maltreatment. Hence, maltreatment prevention programs for families with an MI parent, which pay particular a...

Empathy allows us to share emotions and encourages us to help others. It is especially important in the context of parenting where children’s wellbeing is dependent on their parents’ understanding and fulfilment of their needs. To date, little is known about differences in empathy responses of parents and non-parents. Using stimuli depicting adults...

Background Bipolar disorder is one of the most severe mental disorders. Its chronic course is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality, a high risk of suicide and poor social and occupational outcomes. Despite the great advances over the last decades in understanding mental disorders, the mechanisms underlying bipolar disorder at the n...

Background Exposure to parental suicide has been associated with increased risk for suicide and suicide attempts, although the strength of this association is unclear as evidence remains inconsistent. Aims To quantify this risk using meta-analysis and identify potential effect modifiers. Method A systematic search in PubMed, PsycInfo and Embase d...

Successful parenting requires constant inferring of affective states. Especially vital is the correct identification of facial affect. Previous studies have shown that infant faces are processed preferentially compared to adult faces both on the behavioural and the neural level. This study aims to specifically investigate the child-evoked neural re...

Introduction: Abrupt discontinuation of antipsychotics is associated with an increased risk of adverse events such as extrapyramidal symptoms in humans. In animal models, vacuous chewing movements may occur after antipsychotic discontinuation. We aim to assess vacuous chewing movements after the discontinuation of second-generation antipsychotics...

Despite growing evidence on effects of parenthood on social understanding, little is known about the influence of parenthood on theory of mind, the capacity to infer mental and affective states of others. It is also unclear whether any possible effects of parenthood on theory of mind would generalise to inferring states of adults or are specific to...

Background Identifying predictors for treatment outcome in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is important in order to provide an effective treatment, but robust and replicated treatment outcome predictors are not available up to now. Objectives We investigated predictors of treatment outcome in a naturalistic sample of patients wi...

In psychiatry, there has been a growing focus on identifying at-risk populations. For schizophrenia, these efforts have led to the development of early recognition and intervention measures. Despite a similar disease burden, the populations at risk of bipolar disorder have not been sufficiently characterized. Within the BipoLife consortium, we used...

Background Sexual minorities such as lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people have an increased risk for suicide, whose reasons are not sufficiently understood. We aimed to test if differences in LGB acceptance explain variations in general suicide rates on a country level.Methods We used linear regression models to explain the variation in age-stan...

Objective Post-coercion review is increasingly regarded as a mean to reduce the negative consequences of coercive interventions, including the development of posttraumatic symptoms. However, the efficacy of this intervention in preventing posttraumatic symptoms or PTSD has not been sufficiently studied. The objective of this study is to examine the...

Aversive drug cues can be used to support smoking cessation and create awareness of negative health consequences of smoking. Better understanding of the effects of aversive drug cues on craving and the processing of appetitive drug cues in abstinence motivated smokers is important to further improve their use in cessation therapy and smoking-relate...

Infant and child faces receive more attention than adult faces, especially when they are portraying emotions. This preferential treatment is increased in mothers. It is unclear how this affects the ability to recognise child emotions and at which age children lose this preferential treatment. Using morphed videos where a neutral face continually an...