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Transforming the understanding
and treatment of mental illnesses.

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Novel Strategies for Early and Preventive Interventions

Overview

This program supports the development of novel behavioral, cognitive, and other psychosocial approaches to ameliorate or prevent the emergence of mental disorders in very young children. The program also supports interventions targeting the prodromal or preclinical stages of serious mental illness in children and adolescents, with the aim of altering the trajectory of developmental psychopathology and optimizing outcomes. The overarching goal is to facilitate the translation of emerging basic or clinical science findings into novel interventions. Thus, interventions that target recently-identified mechanisms underlying mental disorders in children and adolescents, and/or factors that confer risk for these disorders, are of particular interest. Highly innovative approaches to intervene on an established mechanism are also of interest, if the novel approach has the potential to significantly improve functional outcomes.

Areas of Emphasis

  • Studies that target novel mechanisms identified through basic or clinical research on the neurobehavioral mechanisms underlying, or conferring risk for, developmental psychopathology
  • Studies targeting specific processes (cognitive, affective, reward, social, biobehavioral, or motor/sensorimotor processes) that are often shared across disorders and may represent opportunities for preemption or early intervention
  • Interventions to address the development of, or risk for, mental disorders within a developmental framework (e.g., sensitive periods in development, age-specific social or environmental influences, feasibility and acceptability within a developmental period)

Contact

Christopher Sarampote, Ph.D.
Program Chief
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 7130
301-443-1959, csarampo@mail.nih.gov