Who's invited?

The purpose and mission of the IMAGEN project

Mental disorders affect more than 25% of the general population at some point during their life-time. These disorders very often begin in childhood and adolescence: more than 2 out of 10 children and adolescents suffer from a mental or behavioural problem.

Signs of drug abuse, affective/ anxiety disorders, hyperkinetic disorders, conduct disorders and emotional disorders, among others, present themselves in adolescence. In all of these disorders, so called dysfunctional processing of reward and punishment and behavioural control is observed. This means that the individual's response to reward and punishment, as well as how they control themselves is altered.

We will be conducting a study from September 2007 - September 2010 which will identify the psychological and biological factors that are involved in human emotion, decision making and behaviour, and how these factors might contribute to mental health.

The final aim of the study is to identify novel prevention and treatment strategies to foster mental health in children and adults.

You, as a parent, know your child better than anybody else, so your support and contribution is essential for the success of our research.

Therefore, we ask for your valuable help with this European research project.

Benefits to you

You will be part of an cohort of 2000 families with teenaged children from all over Europe who are helping to understand more about teenage minds and what biological and environmental factors might have an influence on mental health.

The study is performed for scientific purposes only.

Your child will receive compensation for his or her time, and any travel expenses for you and your child will be reimbursed to facilitate attendance to scanning sections.

There is no direct personal or financial benefit to you from participation in the study. Your participation in this study however would enable us to find out more about how to better take care of teenagers' health which will in turn lead to improved support and prevention.

If your child wishes, he or she will receive personalised feedback on the results from the psychological test. If your child agrees, you may also join this feedback session. (Note: This section only applies to the London and Nottingham website!!!)

You will be sent a newsletter at the end of the study, or earlier if indicated, when we achieve results which have meaningful applications.