As of September 1, 2021, psychiatrist and Amsterdam Neuroscience researcher Christiaan Vinkers is appointed as full professor ‘Stress and Resilience’ at Amsterdam UMC. His assignment as a professor was celebrated at the Amsterdam Neuroscience Annual Meeting, which was themed ‘resilience’.

Christiaan Vinkers has degrees in Pharmacy, Medicine, and Law. He is interested in the neurobiological background of stress resilience and vulnerability including (epi)genetic, neuroendocrine, and brain circuitry factors. Vinkers tries to apply his knowledge from fundamental research in applied clinical research and the other way around.

Dialogue on stress and resilience in psychiatry

During the annual meeting 2021, Vinkers was invited on stage to talk about resilience. The dialogue started on how we can shed more light on the fundamental (neuro)biological background of stress resilience, but also make sure that patients can eventually benefit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3bfXcXkYqE

New book on antidepressants

Recently Christiaan Vinkers and pharmacist Roeland Vis published the Dutch book “Hoe zit het nu echt met antidepressiva?” In this new book, they discuss the ins and outs of taking antidepressants. ‘You won’t become happy from anti-depressants, and they won’t give you a good feeling. At most the use of it can help you make a depression more bearable or even making it disappear’ write Vinkers and Vis. Because there are so many misconceptions about taking these drugs, Vinkers and Vis felt the need to discuss the subject in an accessible way for a wide audience. The book is a revised version of their previous book ‘Even slikken’ from 2017. They updated the information and added some sections, for instance about the how and why (not) of quitting with antidepressants.

Photo by Digidaan

Read more about Christiaan Vinkers in our new Amsterdam Neuroscience Magazine 2021