Enhanced Psychotherapy & Digital Mental Health
Lead
Dr. med. Johannes Wolf – Specialist in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
Dr. Sabrina Boger – Lead Psychologist
Our Mission
In deutscher & einfacher Sprache
Viele Menschen mit einer langanhaltenden Depression fühlen sich einsam oder von anderen abgeschnitten, was die depressiven Beschwerden aufrechterhalten kann. Wir untersuchen mit Smartphones und anderen digitalen Methoden, wie sich solche Erfahrungen von Tag zu Tag verändern. Unser Ziel ist es, darauf aufbauend die Psychotherapie für Menschen mit langanhaltenden Depressionen weiterzuentwickeln.
Research Lines
Digital Mental Health
How symptoms, interpersonal experiences, and behavior unfold in everyday life and in digital social environments — studied with Ecological Momentary Assessment, passive sensing, digital biomarkers, and analyses of social media and AI use.
Enhanced Psychotherapy
How these findings can inform the further development of psychotherapy for chronic affective disorders, including treatment stratification and pharmacological or digital augmentation of CBASP and other psychotherapies.
Digital Mental Health
- LIKES – Lifespan Interactions between Social Media Use and Mental Health: Digital social environments, loneliness, and mental health across the lifespan. Part of BMFTR 01EE2507A; no direct funding to the working group
- AI-MH: Patterns of artificial intelligence use and their associations with mental health trajectories and treatment outcomes.
- EMPOWER: Self-help interventions after inpatient treatment, including EMA assessments, to improve long-term outcomes. Part of BMFTR 01EE2601M
- SMART-SI: EMA of suicidality and interpersonal risk factors in chronic depression. FöFoLe 1150
- Digital Phenotyping & EMA Collaborations: Methodological work on EMA, digital biomarkers, symptom dynamics, and machine learning across psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders.
Enhanced Psychotherapy
- CBASP-Ketamine: Augmentation of CBASP with i.v. ketamine, including intensive longitudinal assessment using EMA. BMFTR-funded collaborative project; no direct funding to the working group
- Augmentation in Routine Care: Further analyses of pharmacological augmentation combined with psychotherapy in cohorts from real-world psychiatric inpatient settings.
- ChangePDD: Multicenter randomized controlled trial of CBASP versus Behavioral Activation in treatment-resistant persistent depression; we co-lead the embedded digital process monitoring (ChangePDD-EMA). DFG-funded collaborative project; no direct funding to the working group
- BreathDEP: Breathwork-based interventions as potential psychotherapy augmentation. BMFTR-funded collaborative project; no direct funding to the working group
Further Projects
- LIFELONG – Mental health and life-long productivity: Mental health and productivity across the life course (coordination: Prof. Dr. Martin Werding). BMFTR-funded collaborative project; no direct funding to the working group
- Wolf, J., Goerigk, S., Burkhardt, G., Eder, J., Kunz, J. I., Falkai, P., Bertsch, K., Ehring, T., Jobst, A., Reinhard, M. A., & Padberg, F. (2026). Lifetime and acute risk of suicidality by profiles of early life adversity: an observational cohort study in a high-risk population. Scientific Reports, 16(1), 20155. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-60185-7
- Wolf, J., Reinhard, M. A., Bodenbender, A., Boger, S., Kunz, J. I., Goerigk, S., Jobst, A., Padberg, F., & Grosse-Wentrup, F. (2026). Addressing Interpersonal Difficulties in Digital Communication in Psychotherapy for Adults With Chronic Depression. American Journal of Psychotherapy. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.20260004
- Wolf, J., Padberg, F., Cronau, A., Wörz, K., Kunz, J. I., Bach, P., Goerigk, S., Jobst, A., Grosse-Wentrup, F., & Reinhard, M. A. (2026). Digital social contacts predict reduced loneliness in chronic depression: an exploratory longitudinal study. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-025-02179-6
- Wolf, J., Goerigk, S., Midderhoff, F., Burkhardt, G., Bühner, M., Köhler, S., Falkai, P., Jobst, A., Padberg, F., & Reinhard, M. A. (2025). Temporal interaction of suicidal ideations and behaviors with loneliness in persistent depressive disorder: A feasibility study using ecological momentary assessment. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 275(4), 1253–1259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-024-01931-8
- Wolf, J., Reinhard, M. A., Goerigk, S., Barton, B. B., Burkhardt, G., Tang, J., Eder, J., Amann, B. L., Bertsch, K., Jobst, A., Musil, R., & Padberg, F. (2023). Suicidal behaviors and adverse childhood experiences: A cross-diagnostic study in persistent depressive disorder and borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research, 330, 115562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115562
- Reinhard, M. A., Schwedler, D., Wendlinger, M., Zeller, A., Appl, F., Kunz, J. I., Wolf, J., Jobst, A., Padberg, F., Flett, G. L., & Goerigk, S. (2026). (Anti-)mattering and its association with child maltreatment and loneliness: evidence from the German versions of the general mattering and anti-mattering scales. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-026-02327-6
- Brakemeier, E.-L., ..., Wolf, J., ..., Cuijpers, P., Hautzinger, M., Sterzer, P., & Padberg, F. (2026). Efficacy, moderators and mediators of CBASP versus behavioural activation in persistently depressed treatment-resistant inpatients: study protocol for the multicentre, randomised controlled ChangePDD trial. BMJ Open, 16(4), e107051. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2025-107051
- Gaus, R., Gross, F., Korman, M., ..., Boger, S., ..., Wolf, J., ..., Padberg, F., Wiltsey Stirman, S., Koutsouleris, N., & Eichstaedt, J. C. (2025). A scoping review of generative AI in mental health support. PsyArXiv (Preprint). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/n7qep_v2
Full publication list and profiles: PubMed | ResearchGate | LinkedIn
- Dr. med. Johannes Wolf – Group Lead, Specialist in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
- Dr. Sabrina Boger – Co-Lead AI in Mental Health, Lead Psychologist
Doctoral Researchers
- Franziska Midderhoff
- Katrin Wörz
- Amelie Cronau
- Miriam Rogge
- Elisa Schrickel
- Marie Allert
- Johanna Kneller
Our group is embedded in the Psychotherapy and Social Neurosciences Research Unit with leadership of Prof. Dr. Frank Padberg, Prof. Dr. Andrea Jobst, PD Dr. Dr. Matthias Reinhard, and Prof. Dr. Stephan Goerigk (Chair of Psychological Research Methods at Charlotte Fresenius University, Munich).
We are strongly committed to developing meaningful and sustainable partnerships between researchers and people with lived experience. We therefore aim to involve patients and members of the public throughout our research and collaborate closely with the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) initiative of the German Center for Mental Health (DZPG).
Participate in a study
We regularly recruit patients and healthy participants for our studies. In most studies, participants answer short questions on their smartphone several times a day over a defined period. If you are interested in taking part in a current study, including SMART-SI, LIKES, or CBASP-Ketamine, please contact us by email: johannes.wolf@med.uni-muenchen.de
Work with us
We regularly offer doctoral projects (Dr. med., Dr. hum. biol.) as well as Master's and Bachelor's thesis projects at the intersection of psychotherapy research, digital methods, and artificial intelligence. Interested candidates are welcome to send a CV and a brief statement of interest to: johannes.wolf@med.uni-muenchen.de
Our research is conducted in collaboration with researchers and institutions in Germany and internationally, including (alphabetically):
- Alexander Mädche – Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Claus Vögele – University of Luxembourg
- Eric Schulz – Helmholtz Munich
- Eva-Lotta Brakemeier – University of Greifswald
- Johannes Eichstaedt – Stanford University
- Stephan Köhler – Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
- Tobias Hauser – University of Tübingen
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG) – collaborations through research consortia and infrastructures
Our own projects are funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), the German Center for Mental Health (DZPG) and by the LMU Faculty of Medicine (FöFoLe).
We further contribute to collaborative projects funded by other bodies, including the German Research Foundation (DFG), without receiving direct funding for our working group.
Contact
Dr. med. Wolf, Johannes
Psychotherapy and Social Neurosciences Research Unit - Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy - LMU University Hospital Munich
