Brenda Penninx

Brenda Penninx is a Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC (location VUmc). As Vice-Department Chair and member of the Management Team, she leads multidisciplinary research initiatives focusing on depression, anxiety disorders, and stress-related conditions. She directs the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) since 2004 and coordinates the Stress-in-Action (SiA) Consortium. Her research group includes 10 assistant professors/postdocs and over 20 PhD students, with >55 PhD graduates supervised to date.

Research Focus: Explores psychosocial, genetic, and neurobiological mechanisms underlying mood disorders, intergenerational stress transmission, and digital health interventions. Key projects include EU-funded MoodFood, Lifebrain, RADAR-CNS, and the intergenerational MARIO study. Her work emphasizes personalized mental health strategies through longitudinal cohort analysis and ecological momentary assessment.

Scientific Contributions: Over 1000 peer-reviewed publications with >70,000 citations (H-index>125), including recent methodological advances in stress reactivity modeling and mobile health applications. Current research integrates metabolomics, digital phenotyping, and interventional RCTs like the OPERA project on antidepressant discontinuation.

• KNAW (Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and Arts) member since 2016
• Recipient of VIDI/VICI personal grants

Her multidisciplinary team bridges psychiatry, neuroscience, mathematics, and data science, operating within research institutes Amsterdam Public Health and Amsterdam Neuroscience.