University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

Zentralgebäude der UPD

As a leading institution in Switzerland, the clinic provides outpatient, day-patient, and inpatient psychiatric care as well as emergency care for all babies, toddlers, children and adolescents in the area it serves. As a university hospital, it has an extended mandate in supra-regional specialized care as well as in education and research.

To the Hospital’s website

Director

Prof. Michael Kaess

Profile

  • Investigating mental health disorders with an onset during childhood and adolescence up to emerging adulthood.

  • Focus on: e-mental health, development of innovative early detection and treatment approaches, neurobiological mechanisms, measurement-based care, psychotherapy research sleep, self-harm, personality disorders, psychosis, eating disorders, trauma-related disorders, and early childhood psychopathology.
  • Teaching students of Medicine and Psychology at all educational levels

External Partners

Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland; Department of Visceral Surgery and Medicine, University Hospital Inselspital Bern, Switzerland; Department of Biomedicine, University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychiatric Clinics of the University of Basel, Switzerland; Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Center for Forensic Hair Analytics, University of Zurich; Clinic for Consultative Psychiatry and Psychosomatics, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland; Developmental Clinical Psychology Research Unit, University of Geneva, Switzerland; Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Switzerland; Addiction Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne; Service of Adult Psychiatry and Psychotherapy West, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne;

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Centre for Psychotherapy Research, Heidelberg University, Germany; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Cologne, Germany; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Leipzig, Germany; International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin, Germany; Department of Biophysiology, TU Dresden, Germany. Anorexieregister Verein e.V., Germany; University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Stockholm, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden; Psychology & Human Development, University College London; School of Psychology, University of Sussex, UK; Orygen, Melbourne, Australia; School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Upstate Medical University, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, USA

Grants

  • SNSF Project Grant (184943): Sleep Neurophysiology: A Window onto Adolescent Mental Health (ongoing; PI: Prof. Tarokh)
  • SNSF Project Grant (197714): Course and burden of risk symptoms and criteria of psychosis in the community: 5- to 10-year follow-up of the Bern Epidemiological At-Risk (BEAR) and the Bi-national Evaluation of At-Risk Symptoms in children and adolescents (BEARS-Kid) studies (PI: PD Dr. Michel)
  • SNSF Ambizione/Flexibility Grant (193279/2): A smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment and intervention for adolescents with auditory verbal hallucinations (ongoing; PI: Prof. Cavelti)
  • SNSF Project Grant (192623): Aberrant local brain oscillations and cortical connectivity in the prodromal state and early psychosis – a TMS-EEG study (ongoing; PI: Prof. Kindler, PD Dr. med. Morishima)
  • Ebnet-Stiftung: A smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment and intervention for adolescents with auditory verbal hallucinations (ongoing; PI: Prof. Cavelti)
  • UPD Stiftung / Burgergemeinde Bern: Establishing a young people advisory group and a parent advisory group for the research department of the University Hospital for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and psychotherapy in Bern (ongoing; PI: Prof. Cavelti)
  • SNSF Starting Grant/Flexibility Grant (211709): The emergence of self-harm in the first decades of life: a biopsychosocial perspective on developmental dynamics, risk and protective factors (ongoing; PI: Prof. Steinhoff)
  • SNSF Project Grant (232067): Exploring the Dreamscape: The Impact of Antidepressants on Dream Neurophysiology and Content (granted; PI: Prof. Tarokh)
  • Talent4Bern: Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bern (ongoing, PI: Prof. Steinhoff)
  • SNSF Project Grant (10003817) / Foundation Adrian und Simone Frutiger: VIRTUE Bern- Virtual Reality Intervention for Transdiagnostic Use of Defusion Exercises (ongoing, PI: PD Dr. Michel)
  • Gesundheitsförderung Schweiz: SLEEPexpertAdo: “Become your ow SLEEPexpert” (ongoing, PI: Prof. Michael Kaess)
  • Projektpool Universität Bern: Bringing everyone to the table: Co-production with young people in youth mental
  • health clinical research (06/2025: Dr. Eva Burkhardt)
  • Gottfried & Julia Bangerter-Rhyner Foundation / Palatin Stiftung: PSY-Wait: A Personalized Smartphone Intervention for Youth Waiting for Psychiatric Treatment (ongoing, PI: Prof. Marialuisa Cavelti)

Highlights 2025

Cortisol responses (calculated as cortisolpost-session – cortisolpre-session) for patients and therapists over the course of therapy sessions.

Beyond Self-Reports: Integrating Cortisol Measurement in Psychotherapy Process Research among Adolescents with Borderline Personality Pathology

This study examined cortisol as a biological stress marker alongside therapy session ratings from 56 adolescents receiving outpatient treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD) and their therapists. In adolescents, cortisol levels did not align with how they rated their sessions. For therapists, however, higher cortisol responses were linked to lower session smoothness and depth, lower positivity, and higher arousal afterward. These patterns may stem from altered interoception, dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning, or greater variability in self-reports and cortisol associated with BPD. The findings highlight the value of including biomarkers like cortisol in psychotherapy process research.

Blaha et al., Psychother Psychosom. 2025

Area under the curve (AUC) for machine-based learning models distinguishing female patients with NSSI and suicide attempts from those with NSSI alone using 8 preselected biomarkers based on existing evidence (CRP, interleukin-6, salivary cortisol, DHEA-S, TSH, dopamine, norepinephrine, ACTH).

A biological phenotype of suicide attempt in adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury: a machine-based learning approach

This study examined whether machine-based learning and biomarkers can distinguish adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) who attempted suicide from those with NSSI alone, using data from 161 high-risk female adolescents. Across models, predictive performance ranged from poor to fair. Among all markers, higher dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and lower thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) showed the strongest associations with suicide attempts, and complex models offered slight improvements over simpler ones. These findings suggest a potential role for biomarkers in assessing suicide risk among adolescents with NSSI, but longitudinal research in larger and more diverse samples is needed to confirm their utility.

Fink et al., Neuropsychopharmacology. 2025

Random intercept cross-lagged panel model including the autocorrelative, cross-lagged, and contemporaneous effects of stress and the mean of clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P) symptoms (mCHR).

The relationship between stress and clinical high-risk symptoms of psychosis in daily life: impact of contemporaneous paths on cross-lagged effects

This Ecological Momentary Assessment study investigated whether momentary stress increases clinical high-risk symptoms for psychosis (CHR-P) or, alternatively, whether CHR-P symptoms heighten momentary stress in 79 patients aged 11–36 from an early detection center. Although no significant temporal effects were found, CHR-P symptoms showed a clear contemporaneous association with increased stress. In particular, non-perceptive symptoms appeared to influence how individuals appraise stress in daily life, suggesting they may be useful targets for real-time, daily-life interventions (ecological momentary interventions).

Cavelti et al., Psychol Med. 2025

Early Struggles—The Relationship of Psychopathology and Development in Early Childhood

Early childhood psychopathology has a profoundly negative impact on various areas of psychosocial functioning. Psychopathology and child development are closely linked and influenced by a range of factors, such as socioeconomic

status and pre- and postnatal risks. This cross-sectional study examines the developmental status of children aged 0 to 5 years with early psychopathology (EPP) in comparison to gender- and age-matched healthy controls

(HC). Children with early pathology elicited a lower total developmental quotient than healthy controls. HC demonstrated a better performance in fine motor skills, language development, and socioemotional development than their counterparts with EPP. These findings highlight the need to identify psychopathology and associated developmental deficits early in childhood which might allow more targeted treatments, enhancing developmental opportunities for affected children.

Martin et al., Children (Basel). 2025

Impairments in personality functioning in adolescents with anorexia nervosa

This case–control study examined impairments in personality functioning (PF) in adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) and their association with disorder severity. Forty-three inpatients with AN and 127 matched clinical controls were assessed using validated interviews of PF and eating disorder severity. Adolescents with AN showed greater impairment in self-esteem than controls. Within the AN group, impairments in self-functioning, particularly identity, as well as facets of empathy and intimacy were associated with greater AN severity and lower BMI percentiles. These findings highlight the relevance of PF impairments in adolescent AN and suggest their importance for targeted assessment and treatment approaches.

Schumacher et al., Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2025