In a major development affecting federal medical research, the National Institute of Mental Health will place more emphasis on preventing and curing mental illnesses. The move is part of a new strategic plan designed to guide research for the next five years.

"To fulfill the institute's public health mission, we need to make sure that breakthroughs in science become breakthroughs for people with mental disorders," said NIMH Director Dr. Thomas R. Insel. "This strategic plan represents NIMH's commitment to continue the accelerated pace of scientific progress by generating the best mental health research that will have the greatest public health impact and continue to fuel the transformation of mental health care."

The Treatment Advocacy Center was among critics of government funding, often at odds with NIMH, part of the National Institutes of Health, for placing too little emphasis on medical research aimed at unlocking the biological causes of mental illnesses.

"This new direction represents the elimination of a major roadblock to preventing and to finding cures to major mental illnesses," said Dr. E. Fuller Torrey. "Landmark reports by the Treatment Advocacy Center helped focus attention on the need for change. The institute's new strategic plan represents positive change and hopefully the next five years will see the change implemented."

The NIMH notes that mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in making this shift in research direction.

NIMH has identified four strategic objectives to guide its research efforts over the next five years:
 

• Promote discovery in brain and behavioral sciences to fuel research on the causes of mental disorders
   

• Chart mental illness trajectories to determine when, where, and how to intervene
   

• Develop new and better interventions that incorporate the diverse needs and circumstances of people with mental illnesses
   

• Strengthen the public health impact of NIMH-support research.

In 2003, the Treatment Advocacy Center, along with Public Citizen, published, "A Federal Failure in Psychiatric Research," faulting the government agency for shortchanging scientific research on mental illnesses. That report followed, "Missions Impossible: The Ongoing Failure of the NIMH to Support Sufficient Research on Severe Mental Disorders," released in 2000.

NIMH will devote significant resources to initiatives and funding opportunities that emerge from the themes and objectives in the plan. In addition, the Institute will use the strategic plan to prioritize funding for applications that are not related to a specific initiative.

The full strategic plan is available online.
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