Neuroscience Applied
How does the brain work? What is the connection between the biology of the brain and our thoughts, feelings and behaviour? How do life experiences and environment affect that connection? Why does that connection sometimes become disrupted and brain ‘malfunction’? Where do diseases such as depression, schizophrenia and anxiety come from? How should they best be understood – and how best treated?
These questions are some of the most difficult in medical science. The brain is not just the body’s most complicated organ, it is arguably the most complicated collection of molecules we know of. How it functions, why it malfunctions, and how disorders of the brain can be prevented and cured, are puzzles that continue to challenge us.
The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology – ECNP exists to help solve these puzzles.
The science of treatments for disorders of the brain is an especially broad and complex area of research. It spans the entire cycle, from fundamental brain research through to experimental medicine, and on to the treatment of patients in the clinic. It requires the whole community of brain science and treatment specialists – neuroscientists, neurobiologists, psychiatrists, psychologists and neurologists, as well as patients, regulators and policy-makers. Bringing all the key players together is the ECNP mission. And ECNP is where it happens.
Our aims and objectives
ECNP’s core mission is help to ensure that advances in the understanding of brain function and human behaviour are translated into better treatments and enhanced public health.
ECNP's history
Since its founding in 1987, ECNP has been dedicated to advancing applied neuroscience.
What is ECNP?
ECNP is a European scientific association. Its core is around 1,000 personal members, who are researchers, clinicians and allied professionals in the fields of translational neuroscience and applied brain research. Most are in Europe, though members come from around the world. The larger ECNP community embraces all those who are committed to translating discoveries in brain science into new and better treatments for disorders of the brain.
ECNP is a non-profit organisation, independent, self-funded and apolitical. It not aligned to any government or country and does not espouse any political agenda.
The origins of the College lie in pharmacology and the science of developing compounds that act on the central nervous system to treat the symptoms of neuropsychiatric conditions. Today, however, ECNP embraces all forms of brain research as it applies to human brain disorders. This covers all kinds of treatments, including not just medicines, but talking therapies, neuromodulation, and technology-enabled e-health.
