Runsen CHEN, D.Phil., Associate Professor

runsenchen@tsinghua.edu.cn

Education

• University of Oxford, Department of Psychiatry, PhD

• University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Centre, MSc

• University of Sydney, School of Psychology, BSc

Academic Positions

• Committee Member, Behavioral and Health Psychology Committee, Chinese Psychological Society

• Committee Member, Youth Health Division, Chinese Preventive Medicine Association

• Associate Editor, Globalization and Health

• Editorial Board Member, BMC Medicine

• Editorial Board Member, Child Abuse & Neglect

• Editorial Board Member, Social Science & Medicine

• Editorial Board Member, Bipolar Disorders

Research Focus

• Youth mental health

• Mood disorders, self-harm/suicidal behaviors

• Applications of digital interventions (virtual reality, apps, wearable devices) in mental health  and psychiatric disorders

Research Group Website: https://www.ymhlab.com/
The research group is continuously recruiting postdocs, doctoral students (including international student), research assistants, and interns. Applicants with similar research interests are encouraged to communicate via email.

Major Research Projects (Selected)

• National Natural Science Foundation Project: Research on the emotional and interoceptive mechanisms and interventions for non-suicidal self-injury in depressed adolescents (2024-present, Principal Investigator)

• Beijing Natural Science Foundation Project: Adaptive personalized multimodal assessment and monitoring system for depression (2024-present, Principal Investigator)

• National Health Commission- Communist Youth League - UNICEF: Evaluation of a peer support toolkit for adolescent mental health (2024-present, Principal Investigator)

• Capital Health Development Research Project: Comprehensive intervention and evaluation for mental health issues in children and adolescents across family, school, and community      settings (2024-present, Principal Investigator)

• National Health Commission- Communist Youth League - UNICEF: Evaluation of a mental health service package for adolescents (2023-present, Principal Investigator)

• National Natural Science Foundation: Research on the pathological mechanisms of mood disorders (2022-present, Principal Investigator)

• Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Ministry of Education: Research on universal preventive interventions for non-suicidal self-injury in school mental health (2022-present,      Principal Investigator)

• Tsinghua University Research Fund: Research on early screening, diagnosis, and intervention techniques for suicidal behavior in depressed adolescents (2021-2022, Principal Investigator)

Publications (Selected)

• Qu, D., Wen, X., Cheng, X., Zhu, A., Wu, Z., Che, L., & Chen, R*. School mental health prevention and intervention strategies in China: a scoping review. The Lancet Regional Health–Western Pacific, 2024 53:101243

• Wang J, Wei Z, Jia L, Yu J, Wang Y, Meng Y, Feng Y*, Chen R*. Can digital self‐harm relate to suicidal thoughts and behaviors beyond physical self‐harm? Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 2024 Mar;149(3):256-66.

• Shu Y, Ao N, Wen X, Cui Z*, Qu D*, Chen R*. The p factor outweighs the specific internalizing factor in predicting recurrences of adolescent depression. European Psychiatry. 2024 Jan;67(1):e28.

• Cui Z, Lei C, Wu W, Duan Y, Qu D, Wu J, Chen R*, Zhang C*. Spontaneous Speech-Based Suicide Risk Detection Using Whisper and Large Language Models. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH. 2024.

• Qu, D., Zhang, X., Liu, D., Liu, B., Chen, D., Cai, C., ... An, J*., & Chen, R*. Effectiveness of a school-based Life Gatekeeper Training Program on suicide prevention in China: protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 2024, 25(1), 335.

• Chong, D., Qu, D., Xi, Y., & Chen, R*. Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) is uniquely linked to suicidality beyond posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults with childhood maltreatment: A multinational study across four countries. Social Science & Medicine, 2024, 362, 117406.

• Wen X, Qu D, Liu D, Shu Y, Zhao S, Wu G, Wang Y, Cui Z*, Zhang X*, Chen R*. Brain structural and functional signatures of multi-generational family history of suicidal behaviors in preadolescent children. Molecular Psychiatry, 2023: 1-12.

• Wen X, Qu D, Zhang X, Wang Y, Cui Z*, Zhang X*, Chen R*. The transition trajectories of self-injurious thoughts and behaviours among children from a biopsychosocial perspective. Nature Mental Health, 2023, 1(10): 782-791.

• Han M, Wang Y, Zhang Y, Wang Y, Ou J*, Ren D, Cai C, Liu K, Li R, Han J, Chen R*. A multicomponent digital intervention to promote help-seeking for mental health problems and suicide in sexual and gender diverse young adults: a randomized controlled trial. PLOS Medicine, 2023, 20(3), e1004197.

• Cai C, Yin C, Tong Y, Qu D, Ding Y&, Ren D, Chen P, Yin Y, An J*, Chen R*. Development of the Life Gatekeeper suicide prevention training programme in China: a Delphi study. General Psychiatry, 2023, 36(5).

• Cai, C., Qu, D., Liu, D., Liu, B., Zhang, X., Chen, P., ... & An J*, Chen, R. Effectiveness of a localised and systematically developed gatekeeper training program in preventing suicide among Chinese adolescents. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 2023, 89, 103755.

• Lei C, Qu D, Liu K, Chen R*. Ecological momentary assessment and machine learning for predicting suicidal ideation. JAMA Network Open, 2023, 6(9): e2333164-e2333164.

• Wen X, Shu Y, Qu D, Wang Y, Cui Z, Zhang X*, Chen R*. Associations of bullying perpetration and peer victimization subtypes with preadolescent’s suicidality, non-suicidal self-injury, neurocognition, and brain development. BMC Medicine, 2023 Apr 12;21(1):141.

• Qu D, Wen X, Liu B, Zhang X, He Y, Chen D, Duan X, Yu J, Liu D, Zhang X, Ou J, Zhou J, Cui Z, An J, Wang Y, Zhou X, Yuan T, Tang J, Yue W*, Chen R*. Non-suicidal self-injury in Chinese population: a scoping review of prevalence, method, risk factors and preventive interventions. The Lancet Regional Health–Western Pacific. 2023, 100794.

• Duan, Y., Xu, S*., Wang, Y., Zhang, Y., Wang, Y*., & Chen, R*. (2022). Blind box over-engagement and suicide risk among adolescents and young adults: results of a large-scale survey. EClinicalMedicine, 51.

• Wang Y, Hu Z, Feng Y, Wilson A, Chen R*. Changes in network centrality of psychopathology symptoms between the COVID-19 outbreak and after peak. Molecular Psychiatry. 2020 Dec;25(12):3140-9.

• Chen R^#, Cui Z^#, Capitão L, Wang G, Satterthwaite TD, Harmer C. Precision biomarkers for mood disorders based on brain imaging. BMJ. 2020 Oct 9;371.

• Chen, R., An, J., & Ou, J. (2018). Suicidal behaviour among children and adolescents in China. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 2(8), 551-553.