Thinking globally to improve mental health: New NIH initiative

Think­ing glob­al­ly to improve men­tal health: NIH announces inter­na­tion­al research ini­tia­tive (press release):

- “The Grand Chal­lenges in Glob­al Men­tal Health Ini­tia­tive, led by the Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health and the Glob­al Alliance for Chron­ic Dis­eases, has iden­ti­fied the top 40 bar­ri­ers to bet­ter men­tal health around the world. Sim­i­lar to past grand chal­lenges, which focused on infec­tious dis­eases and chron­ic, non­com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases, this ini­tia­tive seeks to build a com­mu­ni­ty of fun­ders ded­i­cat­ed to sup­port­ing research that will sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve the lives of peo­ple liv­ing with MNS dis­or­ders with­in the next 10 years.”
— “Par­tic­i­pat­ing in glob­al men­tal health research is an enor­mous oppor­tu­ni­ty, a means to accel­er­ate advances in men­tal health care for the diverse U.S. pop­u­la­tion, as well as an exten­sion of our vision of a world where men­tal ill­ness­es are pre­vent­ed and cured,” said Thomas R. Insel, M.D., direc­tor of the Nation­al Insti­tute of Men­tal Health (NIMH), the NIH insti­tute head­ing this effort. Accord­ing to the paper’s authors, the dis­or­ders tar­get­ed by the Grand Chal­lenges in Glob­al Men­tal Health—for exam­ple, schiz­o­phre­nia, depres­sion, epilep­sy, demen­tia, and alco­hol dependence—collectively account for more years of life lost to poor health, dis­abil­i­ty, or ear­ly death than either car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease or cancer.”

We will track this ini­tia­tive and announce find­ings when pub­lished. To learn more:

• Announce­ment: Think­ing glob­al­ly to improve men­tal health: NIH announces inter­na­tion­al research initiative
• Paper: Com­ment in Nature (opens PDF)
• Web­site: Grand Chal­lenges in Glob­al Men­tal Health