The central role of the glutamate system in stress response and anxiety

The 9th symposium on ‘Systems Neuropsychiatry’, we will discuss integrative concepts of ‘Stress, Anxiety and Addiction’. Here, we would like to present integrated functional knowledge of circuits of stress and anxiety which are interconnected with circuits of addiction. Risk factors are key factors to be discussed from an interdisciplinary perspective. Concepts like ‘regulation’, ‘dysbalance’, ‘adaptation’ are crucial in this macro-structural context. Additionally, the intracellular molecular signaling network, connected to dopamine and glutamate signaling pathways, is analysed by exploratory computational models. Finally, the interplay between the genome, the proteome, the transcriptome and the epigenome is being explored. The symposium aims to find a better understanding of the pathways from stress and anxiety to addiction, as one of the most important public health issues.