For Anna Szücs, research is not just about data, diagnoses, or definitions, it is about understanding people in all their complexity. Trained as a physician and later as a psychiatry resident, Anna became increasingly intrigued by a question that would come to define her scientific path: why do some people cope more easily with the challenges of aging, while others struggle profoundly?
Anna’s path into research was not a linear one. While she was already curious about research during her psychiatry residency, the demands of clinical training initially left little space to pursue it. A key turning point came when she spent time in the United States as a visiting scholar, joining a suicide research group working with older adults. There, she was able to combine her clinical observations with her interest in personality. It was here that she noticed something striking. Outcomes in older patients were not determined solely by the severity of their symptoms. Instead, much depended on who these individuals were, their personalities, coping styles, and the ways they had learned to relate to the world across a lifetime. This observation led her to a research focus that has remained central ever since: the role of personality determinants in depression, suicide risk, and help-seeking behavior in old age.
At a time when mental health is increasingly discussed in public discourse, Anna emphasizes that mental well-being exists on a continuum. The patients seen in psychiatric hospitals are not fundamentally different from the rest of the population; they are often those who have reached the most severe end of that spectrum. Aging can bring unique stressors, loss of work or purpose in life, declining physical health, bereavement, and social isolation, that may overwhelm even individuals who have managed life’s earlier challenges well. Understanding who is at risk, and why, is therefore a crucial first step toward prevention.
Anna’s research shows that personality traits commonly viewed as strengths earlier in life—such as being highly detail-oriented, self-reliant, and in control—can paradoxically become vulnerabilities in old age. By viewing aging through the lens of personality, her research opens the door to more tailored, nuanced interventions, ones that respect individuality rather than relying on one-size-fits-all solutions.
This appreciation for nuance extends beyond her research and into who Anna is as a person. Drawn early on to creative writing and the arts, she describes research as another form of creativity: constructing narratives from data, interpreting patterns, and shaping findings into stories that lead to new questions. After completing her PhD during an intense period that included remote work and a postdoctoral position in Singapore, she is now deliberately making space for creativity again, this time by writing a novel.
For Anna, creativity and science are not opposing forces, but complementary ones. Both require curiosity and reflection, but where science might like to hold on to more strict lines, creativity allows her to think outside the box. She therefore, advocates for a life, and a science, built on multiple pillars, offering resilience also later in life, when any single one begins to crumble.
Anna defended her PhD thesis titled personality determinants of depression, suicide risk, and help-seeking in old age on November 17, 2025 and was given the distincion CUM LAUDE for her research! During her PhD track, Anna was supervised by professsor dr. Andrea Maier and professor dr. K. Szanto.
This article is a repost of the AMS linkedin post about Anna.