Office of the Clinical Director

The National Institute of Mental Health Division of Intramural Research Program (NIMH IRP) conducts extensive research into the mechanisms of and treatments for a range of mental illnesses including schizophrenia, affective, anxiety, childhood disorders, as well as genetic studies. The IRP conducts clinical studies that are designed to expedite the exchange of information between scientists and clinicians so that basic findings can be moved more quickly from the laboratory setting to the treatment of patients at the bedside. The clinical research portion of the program comprises tenured and tenure-track clinical investigators, staff clinicians, and fellows in more than a dozen clinical Branches and free-standing Sections.

The mission of the Office of the Clinical Director (OCD) is to ensure that research subjects participating in NIMH protocols receive high quality clinical care. The overall responsibilities of the office include the following: oversight of the clinical care provided to our research participants, management of the NIMH protocol review process through the Institutional Review Board (IRB), clinical research training, regulatory oversight and compliance monitoring, patient safety and quality assurance, authorization of medical staff credentials, and allocation of Clinical Center (CC) resources.