In this message from the Director of the NIMH, Dr. Joshua Gordon announces an increased focus on psychosocial interventions for treating mental health conditions.
“From my perspective, and from the perspectives of those I’ve talked to in the field over these past few months, it is pretty clear that we need to develop and test new psychosocial approaches, and to refine and optimally deploy existing strategies. But how do we do so in a principled manner, avoiding simply rehashing old discoveries and focusing our efforts on approaches that can actually advance the field and improve standards of care?
One possible way forward is written into the NIMH Strategic Plan for Research, which emphasizes an experimental therapeutics approach to translating the growing understanding of the factors that cause and sustain mental illnesses into new or improved approaches to prevention and treatment.”