Willem van der Does

Willem van der Does is a Professor at the Department of Psychology, Leiden University, and holds a secondary appointment at the Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center. His research spans clinical psychology, nutritional psychiatry, and political psychology, with a focus on depression, anxiety, and cognitive mechanisms.

• Professor of Clinical Psychology
• Department of Psychology, Leiden University
• Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center

His work includes studies on the chronobiology of depression, dietary interventions for mental health, and neuromodulation techniques like noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation. He leads the SAFE study on suicidal ideation monitoring and the IMPACT-study for PTSD treatment optimization.

Recent publications analyze methodological challenges in nutritional psychiatry and explore the neurobiological links between stress, aging, and chronic illness. He is also active in science communication, contributing to Zin Magazine.

• Casimir Prize for suicide prevention education
• Peter van Straaten Psychologieprijzen 2021

He supervises clinical research, collaborates on international projects, and serves on editorial boards. His lab investigates biomarkers for depression (e.g., EEG theta/beta ratio) and personalized treatment approaches.