NIMH Director Discusses Research Progress and Opportunities During Visit to Ohio State University
Earlier this month, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) spent a day at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center to help kick off May’s Mental Health Awareness month.
This year, the NIMH is celebrating 75 years of providing federal funding for basic and clinical research on mental health disorders.
Researchers across the nation, including at Ohio State, tap into those funds to study better options for prevention, recovery and cure for those struggling with mental illness.
The NIMH has an annual budget of about $2.5 billion, yet only one in five studies submitted to NIMH is funded, said Joshua A. Gordon, who has led the organization since 2016.
During his visit, Gordon attended a luncheon with Medical Center leaders, Ohio State mental health researchers and local philanthropists who support Ohio State’s vision of research excellence for mental health.
During the luncheon, John J. Warner, CEO of Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and executive vice president at Ohio State, said that it’s important for researchers to know that the community is behind them.
“Mental health care is health care, and the work we’re doing at Ohio State is going to help us make critical advances to help improve the health of Ohioans and people across the world,” Warner said. “That research would not be possible without generous philanthropic support from our donors and community and government partners.”
Since arriving at Ohio State in 2019, K. Luan Phan, chair of psychiatry and behavioral health, has more than doubled the number of faculty in his department. By recruiting world-class clinical and research faculty in key areas, including suicide prevention, trauma/stress, addiction and mood disorders, the department’s research funding has increased more than 10-fold during that time.
“We have brought the best minds to solve the mind’s biggest problems,” Phan said. “It’s so important to have support from all stakeholders, which include the federal government, state government, hospital leaders and community advocates and philanthropic donors, all coming together to help us solve this problem of mental health disorders.”
Together with research partners from other public universities across the state, Phan and his team are leading the $20 million SOAR Studies funded by the state of Ohio. These studies will help identify the modifiable risk and resilience factors of mental illness and addiction to transform the way we understand mental health and they way we treat mental illness to prevent illness, intervene earlier, improve outcomes and save lives.
The studies will enroll 15,000 Ohioans in total, with 1,200 families also participating in a more in-depth study, Phan said. So far, close to 8,000 Ohioans from all 88 counties across the state have enrolled.
“We need to translate academic and ‘research’ findings from the ivory tower into the clinics and community centers where patients and families seek help,” Phan said. “We need to go from thinking about how to improve treatments to actually doing and discovering how to best bring treatments to where people live, work, learn.”
Gordon echoed his support for those donors who are helping to fund mental health research at Ohio State and elsewhere.
“Only when we work together can we solve the most pressing and complex issues facing patients struggling with mental health challenges,” Gordon said. “Mental health research has resulted in great gains for our patients. The research efforts we’re making now will pay off later.”
As part of his visit, Gordon met with students and researchers in small group sessions to learn more about Ohio State studies. He also gave a lecture about NIMH research priorities, including:
- Basic biology discoveries
- Exploring computational psychiatry
- Improving systems of care
- Addressing mental health disparities
“We have a lot of work to do,” Gordon said. “We want to improve our treatments and our ability to deliver these treatments to the right people at the right time. I’m impressed with the work of the Ohio State Department of Psychiatry and the SOAR Studies. I’ve not seen another statewide study that is comparable to SOAR in scale or scope.”