Valentina Zonca

I graduated in Pharmacy at the University of Milan and I am now doing my doctoral project in Psychological Medicine at King’s College London. I work (and live) between the Stress, Psychiatry and Immunology (SPI) Lab at King’s College London (UK) and the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory in Brescia (Italy).

In my research, I deeply investigate mental health - especially depression - in adolescence, a critical stage of life which represents the transition between childhood and adulthood in both psychological and neurodevelopment terms. Therefore, the consequences of developing psychiatric disorders during neurodevelopment processes has to be deeply understood to avoid lifetime unhealed “scars”.

The InSPIre the Mind blog gives me the opportunity to sensitive a wide and heterogeneous audience regarding adolescent psychiatric disorders and I personally aim to increase the awareness of depression in teenagers. To pay attention to adolescents’ health and eliminate the stigma of mental health are the first steps to make a real difference in their mental wellbeing. Can we prevent depression in adolescents? How and where can teenagers ask for help? What can everyone do in order to reduce the stigma of adolescent depression? I am trying to answer all of these questions… stay tuned!