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and treatment of mental illnesses.

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Science News

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NIMH Creates Division of Data Science and Technology

On October 23, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) announced the creation of a new Division of Data Science and Technology (DST).

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Saving Lives Through the Science of Suicide Prevention

75th Anniversary

Evidence-based efforts to improve suicide risk screening, assessment, and intervention are helping to save lives, thanks to research supported by NIMH.

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Emergency Department Intervention Reduces Adult Suicide Risk

Evidence-based practices for suicide prevention effectively reduced suicidal behaviors among adults seen for care in emergency departments.

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Cracking the Ketamine Code

75th Anniversary

NIMH supported science and NIMH researchers helped pave the way for the development of ketamine—a groundbreaking treatment that has improved the lives of those who are impacted by treatment-resistant depression.

Woman holding a burning cigarette.
Helping People With Serious Mental Illness Quit Smoking

In a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and published in JAMA Psychiatry, Gail Daumit, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University, A. Eden Evins, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues developed a tobacco smoking cessation intervention for people with serious mental illness.

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Scientists Unveil Detailed Cell Maps of the Human Brain and the Nonhuman Primate Brain

A group of international scientists have mapped the genetic, cellular, and structural makeup of the human brain and the nonhuman primate brain, allowing for a deeper knowledge of the cellular basis of brain function and dysfunction, helping pave the way for a new generation of precision therapeutics for people with mental disorders and other disorders of the brain.

NIH Common Fund Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) program
NIH Launches Community-Led Research Program to Advance Health Equity

NIH is funding a first-of-its-kind community-led research program to study ways to address the underlying structural factors within communities that affect health, such as access to safe spaces, healthy food, employment opportunities, transportation, and quality health care.

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Combined, High Maternal Stress and Prenatal COVID-19 Infection May Affect Attention Span in Infants

Prenatal COVID-19 infection increased the risk for impaired attention and delayed socioemotional and cognitive functioning among infants of mothers who experienced high psychosocial stress during their pregnancy.

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RAISE-ing the Standard of Care for Schizophrenia: The Rapid Adoption of Coordinated Specialty Care in the United States

75th Anniversary

The Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode research initiative, launched by NIMH to test the effectiveness of coordinated specialty care to treat first-episode psychosis, has transformed the mental health landscape in the United States and helped thousands of people with schizophrenia achieve better outcomes.

A headshot of Dr. Patricia A. Areán.
Dr. Patricia A. Areán Named New Director of NIMH’s Division of Services and Intervention Research

Patricia A. Areán, Ph.D., has been selected as the new director of the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) Division of Services and Intervention Research (DSIR).