Nic J.A. van der Wee is psychiatrist and professor of Psychiatry, in particular Biological Psychiatry, at Leiden University Medical Center. He is member of the management teams of the LUMC research profile area Translational Neuroscience and the interfaculty Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, and is Coordinator of the LUMC psychiatry curriculum. Van der Wee is Scientific Coordinator of the European research networks of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology and Chair of the Anxiety Working group of the large scale global MRI and genetics initiative ENIGMA.

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Nic J.A. van der Wee is psychiatrist and professor of Psychiatry, in particular Biological Psychiatry, at Leiden University Medical Center. He is member of the management teams of the LUMC research profile area Translational Neuroscience and the interfaculty Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, and is Coordinator of the LUMC psychiatry curriculum. Van der Wee is Scientific Coordinator of the European research networks of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology and Chair of the Anxiety Working group of the large scale global  MRI and genetics initiative ENIGMA.

Psychiatry

Psychiatric disorders are amongst the most prevalent and most incapacitating medical disorders. The biological psychiatric research in in the research line ‘Stress-related disorders across the life-span’ of the LUMC departments of Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry focuses on the neurobiology, phenomenology and treatment of stress and trauma-related psychiatric disorders across the life-span, with a special emphasis on the neurobiological mechanisms involved in vulnerability and in resilience. Research into the neurobiological mechanisms involved in resilience has been lagging behind, but is becoming increasingly important with the acceptance of new definitions of health and the current emphasis on prevention and personalized medicine. The research topics of our biological psychiatric research reflect the many questions on aetiology, impact and treatment of brain and mental disorders in in the Dutch National Science Agenda. We investigate the neurobiology of stress- related disorders on all levels, from genes to hormones and brain circuity.

In Leiden we have a strong preference for dimensional, developmental and translational approaches, for which we have developed collaborations within the LUMC, within Leiden University, regional mental health providers and with several national and international partners.

Academic career

Nic van der Wee studied medicine and medical biology in Utrecht, the Netherlands, with internships in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and France. After military service, he finished his residency in psychiatry at the University Medical Center  Utrecht in 1999, followed by a clinical research fellowship at this institute. He obtained his PhD at Utrecht University in 2005 for the thesis ‘Windows on the brain. Neuroimaging studies in obsessive-compulsive disorder’. He became a senior staff member of the Department of Psychiatry of the LUMC in 2002 and a full professor of Psychiatry, in particular Biological Psychiatry in July 2013.  Van der Wee has combined clinical, research and educational activities since his residency.

He authored or co-authored more than 200 articles and several book chapters. His group’s research focuses on the neurobiology, phenomenology, and treatment of mood, anxiety, somatoform and stress related disorders, with a preference for dimensional, multidisciplinary, developmental and translational approaches. 

Since 2008 van der Wee is scientific coordinator of the European research networks of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP).  He is a member of the management teams of the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC) and the Leiden Center for Translational Neuroscience (LCTN). Van der Wee is chair of the in 2017 established Anxiety Working Group of the large scale global Neuroimaging Genetics trough Meta-analyses (ENIGMA) initiative. He was member of the working group for the revision of the pharmacological treatment guidelines for Anxiety disorders of the British Association of Psychopharmacology, is member of the psychopharmacology section of the World Pychiatric Association and was expert in the EU FP-7 Roadmap for Mental Health in European Research (ROAMER) initiative.

Van der Wee is on the editorial board of the Dutch Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie  and reviewer for the most important international psychiatric journals.

Prizes and honourable appointments

2014- appointed International Fellow, American Psychiatric Association

2012-     appointed Fellow, European College of Neuropsychopharmacology

Publications