Dorien Nieman

Dorien Nieman is associate professor and Head of the Cognition lab at the Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, where she works since 1996. She has (co)authored more than 80 articles in (inter)national journals, several book chapters and a book. Main topics in her work are psychotherapy, biomarkers, prediction and prevention of severe psychiatric disorders.

Since 19 years I work with subjects who experience psychiatric symptoms. The desolation associated with severe mental illness struck me often. It was hopeful to notice that treating help-seeking subjects in an early phase with psychotherapy instead of medication, led to a good recovery in many patients. Since 2001, I have been involved in studies that investigate the prediction of severe mental illness in subjects with emerging symptoms and new treatment methods to reduce the chance of progression to severe mental illness. Furthermore, I do research that transcends the traditional diagnostic boundaries in psychiatry as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). My second book entitled 'Prevention in Mental Health Care: Time for a new approach' was published in July 2016 by Routledge. This book addresses fundamental questions in psychiatric research and practice by combining philosophy, neuroscience and clinical experience. The stories of the patients I work with form the basis of this book.