Psycho-cardiology
Research on bi-directional associations between psychosocial factors and cardiovascular function, symptoms and diseases. This line of research addresses both psychosomatic and somatopsychic processes and their interactions. Psychosomatic processes refer to psychosocial factors affecting cardiac functioning, symptoms and disease outcomes, including mortality, among others. Somatopsychic processes include effects of heart disease on quality of life, psychosocial adjustment and its disorders, which often lead to co-morbid secondary mental illnesses.
These issues are studied on the level of clinical epidemiology (including, among others, research on psychodiagnostics in cardiac patients) and psychophysiology. They are in part funded by research grants from BMBF and others. In a DFG-funded multicentre randomised controlled trial our group is currently testing a stepwise psychotherapy intervention for depressed patients with coronary artery disease. A laboratory for molecular research in psycho-cardiology is under development and a research professor (W2) for molecular psycho-cardiology will be appointed shortly to run this facility.

Head
Graduate psychologist
Senior physician