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NAMI Policy Research Institute Task Force on Serious Mental Illness Research

NAMI’s Policy Research Institute convened a task force on research to help identify the ways in which significant advances in research and treatment can be achieved. Members of the task force are listed in the appendix. Specifically, the task force addressed the following questions to provide a roadmap to serious mental illness recovery and cure:

• In light of the public health and human needs as well as scientific opportunities, what are the major research areas requiring investment so as to achieve the most rapid progress possible toward recovery and cure of serious mental illnesses?
• What levels of research investment are required in the near term and over the next 5 years to achieve the identified goals?
• Given the current fiscal and bureaucratic environment, how can necessary investments be secured from the National Institute of Mental Health and other sources?
• Beyond financial resources, what research mechanisms and partnerships are necessary to significantly advance research and translate findings into practice?
• How can this proposed research agenda be effected and its progress monitored over time

The Research Task Force members, including experts and NAMI members, met on December 16, 2003 at Mount Sinai Medical School, to discuss this agenda. The meeting included presentations by several experts on the research needs in various relevant areas, including basic, clinical, and health services research as well as specific populations, including children and adolescents, aging individuals, and individuals from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds with severe mental illnesses. The discussion built on efforts by the National Advisory Mental Health Council and other sources. Ten recommendations were developed, which were approved by the NAMI Board of Directors at its January, 2004 meeting in Washington, DC. The meeting’s discussion and recommendations are described in the report.

Read the full report, Roadmap to Recovery & Cure (March 18, 2004; PDF, 497kb)

Task Force Members

Edward M. Scolnick, M.D., President Emeritus of Merck Research Laboratories, and Ken Duckworth, M.D, NAMI’s Medical Director, child psychiatrist, and former mental health department administrator, will co-chair the Task Force.

The executive committee of NAMI’s Scientific Council served as coordinating members of the Task Force: Jack Gorman, M.D., Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Carol Tamminga, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Robert Drake, M.D., Director of the New Hampshire-Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center, and Kimberly Hoagwood, Ph.D., Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia University, New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Members include:

Xavier Amador, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
Columbia University
NAMI National Board of Directors

Barbara Burns, Ph.D.
Professor of Medical Psychology
Duke University

Amy Campbell, J.D., M. Bioethics
Senior Instructor, Department of Psychiatry and Division of Medical Humanities
University of Rochester Medical Center

Bruce Cohen, M.D., Ph.D.
Chair of the Department of Psychiatry
McLean Hospital

Michael J.Cohen, M.A.,CAGS
Executive Director
NAMI New Hampshire

Susan Essock, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Ellen Frank, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic

Edward Foulks, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Dean
Tulane University School of Medicine
First Vice-President
NAMI National Board of Directors

Ronald Kessler, Ph.D.
Professor of Health Care Policy
Harvard Medical School

Jeffrey Lieberman, M.D.
Director of the Mental Health and Neuroscience Clinical Research Center
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jim McNulty
NAMI President Emeritus
National Advisory Mental Health Council

Alan Metz, M.D.
Director of Medical Affairs for the Central Nervous System Section
Glaxo Smith Kline

Jeanne Miranda, Ph.D.
Assistant Director
University of California at Los Angeles
Health Services Research Center

Anand Pandya, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
New York University School of Medicine
NAMI National Board of Directors

Herbert Pardes, M.D.
President and CEO
New York Presbyterian Hospitals

Charles Reynolds, III, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Neuroscience
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

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