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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Molecular Psychiatry

Brain network-based stratification of mental health disorders: design and cohort description of the STRATIFY and ESTRA studies

  • Nilakshi Vaidya1
  • Zuo Zhang2,3
  • Kofoworola Agunbiade2
  • Georgina Keggin2
  • Kebir Hedi1
  • Jeanne Winterer4,5
  • Marina Bobou2
  • John Broulidakis6
  • Sinead King2
  • Lauren Robinson2,7
  • Yuning Zhang6
  • Gareth J. Barker8
15 more authors
  • Arun L. Bokde9
  • Rüdiger Brühl10
  • Antoine Grigis11
  • Hervé Lemaître11,12
  • Tristam Lett1
  • Frauke Nees13
  • Dimitri Papadopoulos12
  • Luise Poustka14
  • Ulrike Schmidt15,16
  • Julia Sinclair17
  • Argyris Stringaris18
  • Robert Whelan19
  • Henrik Walter5
  • Sylvane Desrivières2
  • Gunter Schumann1,20,21,22
22 affiliations
  1. 1Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  2. 2Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, SE5 8AF United Kingdom
  3. 3School of Psychology, Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
  4. 4Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  5. 5Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Charité Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, Berlin, Germany
  6. 6Psychology Department, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
  7. 7Oxford Institute of Clinical Psychology Training and Research, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
  8. 8Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, SE5 8AF United Kingdom
  9. 9Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
  10. 10Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Berlin, Germany
  11. 11NeuroSpin, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
  12. 12Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, UMR 992 INSERM, CEA, Faculté de médecine, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
  13. 13Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
  14. 14Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie- und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
  15. 15Department of Psychological Medicine, Section for Eating Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, SE5 8AF UK
  16. 16South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  17. 17Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
  18. 18Division of Psychiatry and Department of Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK
  19. 19School of Psychology and Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
  20. 20Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Institute for Science and Technology of Brain Inspired Intelligence and National Center for Neurological Disorders, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
  21. 21Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  22. 22The German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Abstract

The STRATIFY (Brain Network-Based Stratification of Reinforcement-Related Disorders) and ESTRA (Eating Disorders Stratification) studies were established as harmonised “sibling” cohorts to develop a mechanistically informed framework for stratifying psychiatric disorders. Here, we describe the study design, methodology, and cohort characteristics. Both studies investigate how network properties of brain structure and function, together with biological markers derived from blood-based genomics, epigenetics, and proteomics, relate to reinforcement-related behaviours that cut across major depressive disorder, alcohol use disorder, psychosis, and eating disorders. A further objective is to identify discriminative multimodal features that predict disease onset, symptom course, and functional outcomes, thereby supporting the development of targeted interventions. STRATIFY and ESTRA recruited 674 patients and 70 healthy controls aged 18–30 years (76% females), supplemented by 199 age- and sex-matched healthy controls from the population-based IMAGEN cohort assessed at the same sites using harmonised protocols. Multimodal assessment included structured clinical interviews, self-report measures, cognitive testing, biosamples for molecular analyses, and multimodal MRI (structural, diffusion, resting-state, and task-based fMRI). ESTRA participants additionally completed longitudinal follow-up, and all cohorts were assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic. STRATIFY and ESTRA together constitute a large-scale, open-science resource integrating multimodal brain, behavioural, and biological data across transdiagnostic patient cohorts in early adulthood. The anonymised dataset is available to the research community through managed access, supporting international collaboration and accelerating the development of mechanistically informed classification systems and predictive tools in psychiatry.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{vaidya2026brain,
  title = {{Brain network-based stratification of mental health disorders: design and cohort description of the STRATIFY and ESTRA studies}},
  author = {Nilakshi Vaidya and Zuo Zhang and Kofoworola Agunbiade and Georgina Keggin and Kebir Hedi and Jeanne Winterer and Marina Bobou and John Broulidakis and Sinead King and Lauren Robinson and Yuning Zhang and Gareth J. Barker and Arun L. Bokde and Rüdiger Brühl and Antoine Grigis and Hervé Lemaître and Tristam Lett and Frauke Nees and Dimitri Papadopoulos and Luise Poustka and Ulrike Schmidt and Julia Sinclair and Argyris Stringaris and Robert Whelan and Henrik Walter and Sylvane Desrivières and Gunter Schumann},
  journal = {Molecular Psychiatry},
  year = {2026},
  month = jul,
  doi = {10.1038/s41380-026-03779-x},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-026-03779-x},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Brain network-based stratification of mental health disorders: design and cohort description of the STRATIFY and ESTRA studies
AU  - Nilakshi Vaidya
AU  - Zuo Zhang
AU  - Kofoworola Agunbiade
AU  - Georgina Keggin
AU  - Kebir Hedi
AU  - Jeanne Winterer
AU  - Marina Bobou
AU  - John Broulidakis
AU  - Sinead King
AU  - Lauren Robinson
AU  - Yuning Zhang
AU  - Gareth J. Barker
AU  - Arun L. Bokde
AU  - Rüdiger Brühl
AU  - Antoine Grigis
AU  - Hervé Lemaître
AU  - Tristam Lett
AU  - Frauke Nees
AU  - Dimitri Papadopoulos
AU  - Luise Poustka
AU  - Ulrike Schmidt
AU  - Julia Sinclair
AU  - Argyris Stringaris
AU  - Robert Whelan
AU  - Henrik Walter
AU  - Sylvane Desrivières
AU  - Gunter Schumann
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/22
JO  - Molecular Psychiatry
DO  - 10.1038/s41380-026-03779-x
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-026-03779-x
AB  - The STRATIFY (Brain Network-Based Stratification of Reinforcement-Related Disorders) and ESTRA (Eating Disorders Stratification) studies were established as harmonised “sibling” cohorts to develop a mechanistically informed framework for stratifying psychiatric disorders. Here, we describe the study design, methodology, and cohort characteristics. Both studies investigate how network properties of brain structure and function, together with biological markers derived from blood-based genomics, epigenetics, and proteomics, relate to reinforcement-related behaviours that cut across major depressive disorder, alcohol use disorder, psychosis, and eating disorders. A further objective is to identify discriminative multimodal features that predict disease onset, symptom course, and functional outcomes, thereby supporting the development of targeted interventions. STRATIFY and ESTRA recruited 674 patients and 70 healthy controls aged 18–30 years (76% females), supplemented by 199 age- and sex-matched healthy controls from the population-based IMAGEN cohort assessed at the same sites using harmonised protocols. Multimodal assessment included structured clinical interviews, self-report measures, cognitive testing, biosamples for molecular analyses, and multimodal MRI (structural, diffusion, resting-state, and task-based fMRI). ESTRA participants additionally completed longitudinal follow-up, and all cohorts were assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic. STRATIFY and ESTRA together constitute a large-scale, open-science resource integrating multimodal brain, behavioural, and biological data across transdiagnostic patient cohorts in early adulthood. The anonymised dataset is available to the research community through managed access, supporting international collaboration and accelerating the development of mechanistically informed classification systems and predictive tools in psychiatry.
SN  - 1359-4184
SN  - 1476-5578
ER  -