NIMH Updates Strategic Research Plan
The plan emphasizes the importance of investing in the fundamental science of the brain and behavior while continuing to respond to urgent mental health needs.
APA is encouraged by the new Strategic Plan for Research that was recently released by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), calling it a timely and well-rounded strategy that pays attention to the importance of public health principles, methodological rigor, new technologies, and health services research.
This new strategic plan, which updates the 2008 version, was developed to keep pace with the evolving landscape of mental health discoveries. Just in the past few years, the arena of mental health has seen a flurry of activity, such as the launch of the National Institute of Health’s ambitious BRAIN Initiative and the passage of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.
This updated plan will guide NIMH’s research priorities over the next five years and, similar to its 2008 predecessor, is organized around four high-level strategic objectives:
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Define the mechanisms of complex behaviors.
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Chart mental illness trajectories to determine when, where, and how to intervene.
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Strive for prevention and cures.
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Strengthen the public health impact of NIMH-supported research.
Carol Tamminga, M.D., says that deepening understanding of the cellullar and molecular mechanisms underlying brain function are key to NIMH’s updated plan.
David Hathcox
“A key element in this update is to direct scientists toward the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie how the brain works,” said Carol Tamminga, M.D. She chairs the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and is also a member of NIMH’s National Advisory Mental Health Council (NAMHC), which reviewed and provided guidance on this new plan.
“In the future, we expect to learn more about the disease process, make better diagnoses, and identify more drug targets, but at this time there is still much we don’t know about complex behaviors and behavioral diseases,” she told Psychiatric News.
One such underexplored area is the exposome, or the range of environmental and social exposures a person experiences over the lifetime—whether parental upbringing, socioeconomic status, air quality, or the gut microbiome. While such exposures have been appreciated as important influences for conditions like posttraumatic stress disorder, recent work has uncovered that the exposome even affects disorders with a heavy biological basis like schizophrenia.
While new boundaries like exposome research and the neural mapping being carried out by the BRAIN Initiative need support, they should not supersede the push for more effective pharmacological, neurological, and psychotherapeutic therapies, said APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., as part of the Association’s official comments on the new plan.
“The identification of new targets and biomarkers must be in parallel with treatment development,” Levin said. “Given that the burden of morbidity and mortality associated with mental illness in the United States is over $300 billion annually, all avenues of research must be vigorously pursued with NIMH leading on these fronts.”
The strategic plan aims to balance the need for long-term investments in basic research with urgent mental health needs, explained NIMH Director Thomas Insel, M.D. To achieve this goal, the updated plan retains a strong focus toward health services research, improved delivery models, and partnerships that can improve the implementation of research advances.
“Psychiatry needs research on how to maximize our ability to get the most out of our current treatments and research that opens vistas on designing better treatments, and this plan nicely balances those competing imperatives,” said James Potash, M.D., the Paul W. Penningroth Professor and Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa and a member of APA’s Council on Research.
“Of course, it is imperative that NIMH has the funding to carry out these critical objectives in our field, and APA and its members need to make sure the value of these far-ranging basic and clinical programs is supported,” Potash continued.
This updated strategic plan was shaped with the help of a diverse community of stakeholders, including the NAMHC and the NIMH Alliance for Research Progress (composed of members from numerous foundations and advocacy groups representing people with mental illness). Additionally, the draft plan was made available for public comment for one month and received nearly 600 responses, including from APA. ■
The NIMH Strategic Plan for Research can be accessed here.
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Published online: 11 May 2015
Published in print: May 2, 2015 – May 15, 2015
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