Complex systems and network theory offer a promising way of understanding common mental health conditions as potential outcomes of factors - internal (e.g., rumination) and external (e.g., living in a high-crime neighborhood) to the individual - that interact with one another, over time, in a network structure. However, an important next step that has yet to materialize in full form, is to develop ideas on how to intervene on such systems.

As a first step, I will present novel simulation work in which we compare the effect of single-target interventions (i.e., ‘attacking’ one factor; analogous to a solitary hunter such as a tiger) to multi-target interventions (i.e., ‘attacking’ multiple factors at once; analogous to a pack hunter such as wolves) on the overall tendency of a system to be in a healthy or a disordered state.

About the speaker

Angélique Cramer is Associate Professor in adult psychiatry at the department of Psychiatry of the Amsterdam University Medical Center, location AMC as well as at the Centre for Urban Mental Health of the University of Amsterdam.

Programme