Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
Brenda Penninx, PhD, is professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the department of Psychiatry of Amsterdam UMC (location VUmc) in Amsterdam (https://psychiatryamsterdam.nl). She serves as vice-Department Chair and member of the Management Team. Since 2004 she leads the multi-site Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA: www.nesda.nl), a longitudinal study of the course and consequences of depressive and anxiety disorders.
Penninx received >50 M Euro from various national and international (EU or NIH) research grants, including the prestigious personal VIDI and VICI grants. Her current research group (10 assistant professors/ postdocs and >20 PhD students) is truly multidisciplinary: persons with diverse backgrounds (psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, epidemiology, mathematics, data science, sociology) together examine the etiology, treatment and consequences of depressive and anxiety disorders. More than 55 students have already obtained their PhD-degree under her supervision. Penninx has published over 1000 international articles, which are well cited (>70,000 citations, H-index>125). In 2016, Brenda Penninx has been elected as member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and Arts (KNAW).
In addition to her leading the NESDA project, she has been involved in several other Dutch and international cohort and intervention studies over the last 20 years. Central themes in her research are understanding psychosocial, environmental, somatic, genetic and neurobiological risk factors and consequences of depression and anxiety disorders and how to intervene on these to improve mental health. Penninx participates e.g. in the EU-funded MoodFood, Lifebrain, PRISM. RADAR-CNS. Earlycause, To_Aition and Respond projects.
The intergenerational transmission of stress and resilience is studied in the longitudinal multi-site MARIO project. The treatment response antidepressants and the efficacy of antidepressant discontinuation, is the theme of another multi-site, longitudinal cohort and RCT project onder her leadership: OPERA project.
Finally, to better understand the impact of daily-life stress, Penninx recently established the Stress-in-Action (SiA) Consortium. Its goal is to enable synergistic collaborations to discover how daily-life stress can be reliably measured, how it determines health, how individual variation impacts on daily-life stress, and how to intervene in a personalized manner on daily-life stress. Brenda Penninx is the Coordinator of this Consortium.
Related documents
External positions
Sticht Center on Aging, Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest University School OfMedicine, Winston-Salem, NC, United States
… → 2003
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or
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CHECKPOINT: Finding immune & metabolic pathways to SMI
Bullmore, E. E. (Principal investigator), Lynall, M.-E.M.-E. (Staff), Perry, B. B. (Staff), Warrier, V. V. (CoPI), Fletcher, P. P. (CoPI), Murray, G. G. (CoPI), Shen, X. X. (Staff), McIntosh, A. A. (CoPI), Milaneschi, Y. (Staff), Gaunt, T. T. (CoPI), Khandaker, G. G. (CoPI), Penninx, B. (CoPI) & Wray, N. N. (CoPI)
31/03/2024 → 30/03/2029
Project: Research
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Mental and Behavioral Aspects of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Penninx, B. (Principal investigator)
National Institute of Mental Health
16/04/2021 → 15/04/2022
Project: Research
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OPERA: Netherlands study of Optimal, Personal Antidepressant use
Penninx, B. (Principal investigator), Bot, M. (Staff), Maarsingh, O. (Staff), Vinkers, C. (Staff) & Bet, P. (Staff)
01/01/2019 → 31/12/2023
Project: Research
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The Bipolar Sequencing Consortium for Combined Analyses and Follow-Up
Zandi, P. P. (Principal investigator), Boehnke, M. L. (CoPI), Freimer, N. B. (CoPI) & Penninx, B. (CoPI)
01/08/2016 → 31/05/2020
Project: Research
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A genome-wide approach to the epigenetics of stress and depression
Penninx, B. (CoPI) & Potash, J. B. (Principal investigator)
15/08/2010 → 31/05/2016
Project: Research
Research output
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Acylcarnitines metabolism in depression: association with diagnostic status, depression severity and symptom profile in the NESDA cohort
Montanari, S., Jansen, R., Schranner, D., Kastenmüller, G., Arnold, M., Janiri, D., Sani, G., Bhattacharyya, S., Mahmoudian Dehkordi, S., Dunlop, B. W., Rush, A. J., Penninx, B. W. H. J., Kaddurah-Daouk, R. & Milaneschi, Y., 1 Dec 2025, In: Translational psychiatry. 15, 1, 65.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Open Access -
Biological pathways underlying the relationship between childhood maltreatment and Multimorbidity: A two-step, multivariable Mendelian randomisation study
Baltramonaityte, V., Karhunen, V., Felix, J. F., Penninx, B. W. J. H., Cecil, C. A. M., Fairchild, G., Milaneschi, Y. & Walton, E., 1 May 2025, In: Brain, behavior, and immunity. 126, p. 59-69 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Open Access -
Classification of Major Depressive Disorder Using Vertex-Wise Brain Sulcal Depth, Curvature, and Thickness with a Deep and a Shallow Learning Model
ENIGMA Major Depressive Disorder working group, 24 Jan 2025, In: ArXiv.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic
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Depression with immuno-metabolic dysregulation: Testing pragmatic criteria to stratify patients
Zwiep, J. C., Milaneschi, Y., Giltay, E. J., Vinkers, C. H., Penninx, B. W. J. H. & Lamers, F., 1 Feb 2025, In: Brain, behavior, and immunity. 124, p. 115-122 8 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Open Access1 Citation (Scopus) -
Exploring the dynamic relationships between nocturnal heart rate, sleep disruptions, anxiety levels, and depression severity over time in recurrent major depressive disorder
Condominas, E., Sanchez-Niubo, A., Domènech-Abella, J., Haro, J. M., Bailon, R., Giné-Vázquez, I., Riquelme, G., Matcham, F., Lamers, F., Kontaxis, S., Laporta, E., Garcia, E., Peñarrubia Maria, M. T., White, K. M., Oetzmann, C., Annas, P., Hotopf, M., Penninx, B. W. J. H., Narayan, V. A. & Folarin, A. & 8 others, , 1 May 2025, In: Journal of affective disorders. 376, p. 139-148 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › Academic › peer-review
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Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (External organisation)
Penninx, B. (Member)
1 Sept 2022 → 31 Aug 2025Activity: Membership › Membership of committee › Academic
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Personalized medicine in depression: a realistic way forward?
Penninx, B. (Speaker)
28 Nov 2020Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Academic
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Immunometabolic pathways for precision medicine strategies in depression.
Penninx, B. (Speaker)
27 Nov 2020Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Academic
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Personalized medicine in depression.
Penninx, B. (Speaker)
19 Nov 2020Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Academic
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Research on the biology of Depression across the lifespan: Big questions and opportunities.
Penninx, B. (Speaker)
6 Oct 2020Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Academic
Prizes
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'Dittmer fund' award from VU University
Penninx, B. (Recipient), 1994
Prize: Honorary award › Academic
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EMGO-Award from the VU University, for best scientific article
Penninx, B. (Recipient), 1997
Prize: Honorary award › Academic
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Epidemioloog B (registered senior epidemiologist) by the Netherlands Society of Epidemiology
Penninx, B. (Recipient), 1988
Prize: Other distinction
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Press/Media
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GZ psychologie: Je kunt beter aan een kind zelf vragen hoe het gaat
01/11/2021
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: interview
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Aanpak depressies: ‘Veel mensen vallen na zes jaar toch weer terug’
03/10/2020
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: interview
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New scientist article on the comorbidity of depression and somatic disorders
14/09/2020
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: exportcomment
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NRC newspaper article on impact of corona pandemic on mental health
12/06/2020
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: exportcomment
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NPO1 radio interview on the newly started study to examine the impact of the Corona pandemic on mental health
02/04/2020
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: exportcomment