Opportunities, risks and challenges in global mental health and population neuroscience: a case of Sino-German cooperation

Abstract

Large scale prospective cohorts have now been established across several countries, and continents, and among the aims include an assessment of the developmental trajectory of mental disorders. This level of international cooperation helps transfer research findings to new social contexts as well as enabling an assessment of which findings can be replicated, and which interventions are most effective, in different social and cultural settings. However, data sharing across different regional and national health care systems requires a careful consideration of different standards in ethical research, data protection and patient care, including respect for patients' rights, in cooperating jurisdictions. In our review, we discuss ethical, legal and practical challenges associated with such cooperation with a focus on research participants, specifically patient recruitment, by considering the instance of China and Germany. Our broader aim is to promote international cooperation by identifying key challenges that arise in international cooperation, and to facilitate an exchange in relation to legal and practical approaches.

Detecting Suicide Ideation in the Era of Social Media: The Population Neuroscience Perspective

“…Population Neuroscience, in which epidemiology and neuroscience are combined to exploit their methodological strengths ( 21 ), represents a new research framework that “ emphasizes an understanding of human behavior across multiple levels of influence (e.g., from culture to social structure, experience, behavior, genes, neural connectivity, and function guided by a multilevel ecological model) ” ( 22 ). Also, other scholars highlighted that a Population Neuroscience perspective would help to better understand human behavior evolution and mental wellbeing across research disciplines ( 23 ). For example, Paus ( 24 , 25 ) argues that the Population Neuroscience perspective will allow us to answer a new range of research questions through the combination of different methodologies and to reach new challenges in research between depth and breadth, with the combined neuroscience and epidemiology approaches, respectively.…”

Mental health data available in representative surveys conducted in Latin America and the Caribbean countries: a scoping review

“…This way, it is possible to avoid higher costs associated with data collection. An example of successful international cooperation on mental health issues is the Sino-German relationship, which includes legal, technical and ethical arrangements for the exchange of information on national surveys and health services 28. This type of cooperation can help define standard practices for mental health data harmonisation in LACCs as, for example, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe did for Time-Use surveys 29…”

“…An example of successful international cooperation on mental health issues is the Sino-German relationship, which includes legal, technical and ethical arrangements for the exchange of information on national surveys and health services. 28 This type of cooperation can help define standard practices for mental health data harmonisation in LACCs as, for example, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe did for Time-Use surveys. 29 We recommend that national and international surveys give priority to collecting data related to the gaps in mental, neurological and substance use disorders in nonspecialised healthcare settings (mental health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP)), as proposed by the WHO.…”