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Transforming the understanding
and treatment of mental illnesses.

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Psychotic Disorders Research Program

Overview

This program supports research into the origins, onset, course, and outcome of schizophrenia spectrum disorders and other psychotic psychopathology. The goals of the program are to discover mechanisms that transform vulnerability characteristics into active illness; to identify valid markers of illness onset; to develop psychometrically sound methods for assessing the cognitive, affective, and behavioral response systems believed to underpin clinical symptoms and functional impairments; and ultimately to channel scientific findings from each of these areas into the development of effective methods of mental illness prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation.

Areas of Emphasis

  • Identifying new targets for assessment and therapeutics that are emerging from integrative neuroscience, genetics, and psychopathology research
  • Supporting translational research on cognition, emotion, and affect dysregulation to find new strategies for treating psychotic disorders
  • Identifying ways in which genetic and environmental factors interact to raise or lower risk for mental disorders
  • Developing new preventive and treatment interventions targeted to specific cognitive, emotional, or interpersonal components of psychotic psychopathology

Contact

Sarah E. Morris, Ph.D.
Program Chief
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 7122, MSC 9625
301-443-9233, sarah.morris@nih.gov